TRAI Drive Test Checks Mobile Quality on Assam Rail Route

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has published the findings of an Independent Drive Test carried out along the railway route from New Tinsukia station to Guwahati station in the Assam Licensed Service Area. The test was run on 11 September 2026 and the results were released on 9 November 2026 for the information of telecom users.

How the test was done

A drive test measures how mobile networks actually behave on the ground rather than on paper. Live voice calls and data sessions are set up on SIM cards of every operator across second, third, fourth and fifth generation networks, using several test handsets, and the sessions are watched and analysed as they happen. The stretch covered 515.9 km of railway and 2 hotspot locations, and the work was supervised by the regional office of the regulator at Kolkata.

The route ran from New Tinsukia to Guwahati by way of Simaluguri Junction, Mariani Junction, Furkating Junction, Dimapur, Diphu and Lumding Junction. The two hotspots, which capture the experience of a user standing still, were the railway stations at Guwahati and New Tinsukia.

What was measured

• Coverage gap, counted as the share of samples whose signal strength fell below the level prescribed for the technology in use.
• Voice quality, through call setup success rate, drop call rate and call setup time.
• Data quality, through download and upload throughput, latency, jitter and packet drop rate.

The results on the route

The best average download speed on the stretch was the 110.82 Mbps recorded by RJIL, while the best average upload speed was the 11.75 Mbps of Airtel. The findings have been sent to the operators for action at their end, and the detailed report is on the website of the regulator.