TRAI Assesses Mobile Network Quality Across, city drive in Virudnagar and Tenkasi districts on Tamil Nadu LSA.

Information Note to the Press (Press Release Noqf-/2026) 1-<> / t> '1J2-.i

TELECOM REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA

www.trai.gov.in

Hyderabad, ~o b/2026

For Immediate Release

TRAI Assesses Mobile Network Quality Across, city drive in Virudnagar and Tenkasi

districts on Tamil Nadu LSA.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority oflndia (TRAI) h as released findings of Independent

Drive Test (IDT) conducted across city drive in Virudnagar and Tenk asi districts in

Tamil Nadu LSA., during the month of June 2026, for information of general telecom

consumers. The purpose of this drive test is to assess and ver ify real time quality of

mobile network services (both voice & data) provided by Telecom Service Provid ers

(TSPs). During the IDT, TRAI captures p erformance of TSPs for key Quality of Service

(QoS) parameters like Coverage, Call Drop Rate (CDR) , Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR) ,

data Download (DL) and Upload (UL) throughput etc., which are then published to

inform Consumers and en courage TSPs to improve their services.

2. These IDTs h ave been designed to capture on ground mobile network performan ce

of all TSPs across diver se usages environm ent like cities, hotspots, public

transport hubs, etc. In this type of drive testing, live data and voice sessions are

established using SIM cards from all TSPs over 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G networks.

Multiple advanced test handsets are used, and th e sessions are monitored and

analysed in real-time using a dvanced Software Systems.

3. TRAI, through its appointed agency, conducted drive tests across City drive 273. l

Kms , Hotspot locations 4 in Virudnagar and Tenkasi districts in Tamil Nadu LSA

during 16th June 2026 to 18th June 2026 in Tamil Nadu LSA. These tests were

conducted under the supervision of the TRAI Regional Office Hyderaba d . The

observations presented in drive test reports represent the performance of the TSPs

on the area/ route under test on the day/ time of conducting the drive test.

4. Drive Test Route Map: The following map provides overview of drive test routes

indicating City drive, Inter-operator calling, Hotspots and Walk tests, as per the

legends sh own on the map:

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5. Key Parameters Assessed

a) Coverage Gap: Percentage of samples, for which signal strength observed

less than the minimum prescribed signal strength for respective technology

(2G/ 3G/ 4G/ 5G).

b) Voice Services: Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR), Drop Call Rate (DCR), Call

Setup Time, Call Silence Rate, Speech Quality (MOS).

c) Call Silence Instance: Number of call silence instance occurred during the

calls.

d) Data Servies: Download/ Upload Throughput, Latency, Jitter, Packet Drop

Rate

6. The overall mobile network performance in Hyderabad for the key parameters

has been summarised below:

a) Coverage Gap - (i) The signal strength observed during voice testing on the

drive test route in auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G), measured as the

number of samples having poor signal strength out of the total samples

collected, was 456 / 41110 for Airtel, 3466/ 40362 for BSNL, 911 / 39132 for

RJIL and 1552/ 40918 for VIL. Details of the coverage gaps have been

provided in the map Annexed.

(ii) The signal strength observed during voice testing on the drive test route

in auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G), measured as the number of

samples having Limited service (No Coverage) out of the total samples

collected, was 0 / 411 10 for Airtel, 20 1/40362 for BSNL, 0 /39132 for RJIL

and 2/376 for VIL. Details of the coverage gaps h ave been provided in the

m a p Annexed.

b) Dropped Calls - Dropped calls, measured as the number of dropped calls

out of the number of successfully established calls, were 0/367 for Airtel ,

5/33 1 for BSNL, 0/344 for RJIL and 2/376 for VIL Details of the dropped

call locations have been provided in the map Annexed.

c) Call Silence Instance - Call silence instances, measured as the total number

of silence instances observed for > 3 seconds out of the total calls

established, were 3 / 349 for Airtel, 32 / 332 for BSNL 8 / 353 RJIL and 4 / 366

for VIL. Details of the call silence instance locations have been provided in

the map Annexed.

d) Data Download and Upload Throughput:

i) Data Download performance (Overall): Average download speed was

observed as 157.73 Mbps for Airtel (5G/4G), 6.25 Mbps for BSNL (3G) ,

275.96 Mbps for RJIL (5G/4G) and 26.36 Mbps for VIL (5G/4G/2G).

Detail of Download throughput has b een provided in the map Annexed.

ii) Data Upload p erformance (Overall): Average upload speed was observed

as 21.94 Mbps for Airtel (5G/4G) , 2.98 Mbps for BSNL (3G), 19.06 Mbps

for RJIL (5G/4G) and 12.46 Mbps for VIL (5G/4G/2G). Detail of Upload

throughput h as been provided in the map Annexed.

Locations of Dropped Calls and Call Silence instances can be seen by clicking

red dot on the map Annexed.

7. Details of drive test route and area covered during the IDT is as under:

City

Virudhunagar, Sivakasi & Tenkasi city and Nearby areas: - Allampatti, misalur,

Koorakikundu, Muthulingapuram, Sivakasi, Thiruthangal, Achampudur,

Panboli, Shenkottai, Courtallam, Thiraviya Nagar, Veikalipatty , Pavoorchatram,

Tenkasi, Ayikudy and Elathur etc.

Hotspots: 1.Kaasi Vishwanathar Temple - Tenkasi ,2. Sivakasi Bus Stand 3.

Tenkasi New Bus Stand 4 . Virudhunagar New Bus Stand

8. The findings of this IDT report have been shared with respective TSPs for taking

further necessary action at their end. Detailed reports of IDT are made a vailable

on the TRAI website at www.trai.gov.in. For any clarification or additional

information, an email can be sent to adv.hydreabad@trai.gov.in or Regional

Office of TRAI can be contacted on telephone no. 040-23000761 .

umar

Adviso , RO Hyderaba d

Annexure

a) Coverage Gap – The coverage distribution found less than the minimum specified signal strength

for the drive test route in auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G) during voice testing, is as below: -

Parameter AIRTEL BSNL RJIL VIL

Total Number of Samples captured on Drive test route 41110 40362 39132 40918

Number of Samples having poor signal strength 456 3466 911 1552

Number of Samples having limited service (No Coverage) 0 201 0 0

Note: Signal strength has been considered poor if it falls below −110 dBm for 5G & 4G, −90 dBm for

3G, and −85 dBm for 2G.

Coverage Gap observed

!IRTEL

BSNL

RJIL

VIL

Note: Plot is based on Dynamic Drive Test results only

b) Dropped Calls - The TSP-wise details of dropped calls in auto-selection mode (5G/ 4G/ 3G/ 2G)

are as below: -

Parameter AIRTEL BSNL RJIL VIL

Number of successful Calls Established 367 331 344 376

Number of dropped Calls 0 5 0 2

Locations of Dropped Calls

VIL

BSNL

Note: Dropped calls locations are shown in red colour and which can be clicked to know the exact

location (latitude and longitude) on the map

c) Call Silence Instance - The TSP-wise details of Call silence instance in Auto-selection mode

(5G/4G) are as below: -

Parameter AIRTEL BSNL RJIL VIL

Call Established

(within service provider network) 349 332 353 366

Number of silences calls for >3 Sec 3 22 7 2

Total number of silence instances for >3 Sec 3 32 8 4

Locations of Call Silence Instance

BSNL

!IRTEL

RJIL

VIL

Note: Call silence instances are shown in red colour and which can be clicked to know the exact

location (latitude and longitude) on the map

d) Data Download and Upload throughput: The TSP-wise details of Average Download (DL) and

Upload (UL) throughput against declared typical DL/UL Throughput for month, in Auto-selection

mode (5G/4G/3G/2G) are as below: -

(i) Download Throughput

Parameter Measured

AIRTEL

(upto 5G)

BSNL

(upto 4G)

RJIL

(upto 5G)

VIL

(upto 4G)

Typical Download throughput

declared by TSP (Mbits/s) 18.00 5.00 15.00 15.00

Average Download Throughput

measured during IDT (Mbits/s) 157.73 6.25 275.96 26.36

!IRTEL

BSNL

RJIL

VIL

Note: Plot is based on Dynamic Drive Test results only

(ii) Upload Throughput

Parameter Measured

AIRTEL

(upto 5G)

BSNL

(upto 4G)

RJIL

(upto 5G)

VIL

(upto 4G)

Typical upload throughput

declared by TSP (Mbits/s) 8.00 3.00 7.00 8.00

Average Upload Throughput

measured during IDT (Mbits/s) 21.94 2.98 19.06 12.46

BSNL

!IRTEL

RJIL

VIL

Note: Plot is based on Dynamic Drive Test results only