TRAI Releases Mobile Network Drive Test Findings for Sonitpur

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has published the findings of an Independent Drive Test (IDT) carried out in Sonitpur district of Assam, under the Assam Licensed Service Area. The test was run in August 2026 to let ordinary subscribers see how voice and data services of the telecom service providers actually perform on the ground.

How the test was done

The drive test was conducted through an agency appointed by TRAI, under the supervision of its Regional Office at Kolkata, from 10 to 13 August 2026. It covered a city drive of 308.0 kilometres, ten hotspot locations and a walk test of 1.6 kilometres. Live voice and data sessions were set up on SIM cards of every operator across 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G networks, using several advanced test handsets, and the sessions were analysed in real time.

What was measured

The parameters covered coverage gap, Call Setup Success Rate, Drop Call Rate, call setup time, call silence rate, speech quality measured as MOS, and for data the download and upload throughput, latency, jitter and packet drop rate.

Speeds recorded

Voice and coverage

On the city drive route in auto-selection mode, poor signal strength was recorded in 1494 of 43999 samples for Reliance Jio, 1766 of 44378 for Airtel, 6682 of 44109 for Vodafone Idea and 18494 of 41037 for BSNL. On dropped calls, Airtel lost none of 311 established calls and Reliance Jio none of 316, Vodafone Idea lost 8 of 312, while BSNL dropped 301 of 476. Call silence instances lasting more than three seconds numbered 13 of 309 for Airtel, 7 of 253 for BSNL, 7 of 309 for Reliance Jio and 8 of 310 for Vodafone Idea. TRAI publishes such findings so that consumers are informed and operators are pushed to improve.