TRAI Drive Test Checks Mobile Networks in Kachchh

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has published what it found when it tested mobile networks on the ground in the Kachchh area of Gujarat. The exercise, called an Independent Drive Test, covered Gandhidham and Bhuj cities and the highway running from Bhuj to Bhachau, all within the Gujarat licensed service area. The testing was done between 8 and 11 September 2026 and the results were released for the information of ordinary telephone users.

How the test works

A drive test checks what a subscriber actually gets, rather than what a network claims. Live voice calls and data sessions are set up on SIM cards of every operator across 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G, several advanced test handsets are used at once, and software watches and measures each session as it happens. The Authority's appointed agency drove 245.2 kilometres inside the cities, visited 9 hotspot locations and covered 75.7 kilometres of the Bhuj to Bhachau highway. The work was supervised by the Authority's regional office at Jaipur.

What is measured

The parameters include the coverage gap, which counts samples falling below the minimum signal strength prescribed for each technology, and for voice the call setup success rate, the drop call rate, call setup time, call silence rate and speech quality measured as a mean opinion score. Call silence instances lasting more than three seconds are counted separately. For data the test records download and upload throughput, latency, jitter and packet drop rate.

Speeds recorded in the cities

In the Kachchh city stretch the average download speed came to 231.92 Mbps for Reliance Jio and 177.25 Mbps for Airtel, both running on 5G and 4G, against 31.68 Mbps for Vodafone Idea and 10.27 Mbps for BSNL. On upload, Airtel led with 34.26 Mbps, followed by Jio at 29.44 Mbps.

On the highway

Along the Bhuj to Bhachau route the average download speed was 241.22 Mbps for Jio and 139.15 Mbps for Airtel. Coverage gaps on this stretch were widest for BSNL. Operators recorded no dropped calls or only a handful on most networks in both the city and the highway runs.

What follows

The Authority has shared the findings with the service providers so that they may act where action is needed. A detailed report is on the Authority's website, and its Jaipur regional office handles queries. The figures describe how each network performed on the route tested, on the day and at the time of the test.