Hyderabad TRAI Drive Test: Jio Leads Speed, BSNL Records Highest Coverage Gaps
HYDERABAD: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released the findings of an Independent Drive Test (IDT) conducted across Hyderabad in May 2026. The exercise assessed the quality of mobile network services offered by telecom service providers.
TRAI conducted the tests from May 14 to May 16 under the Andhra Pradesh Licensed Service Area (LSA). The regulator evaluated key Quality of Service (QoS) parameters such as network coverage, call drop rate, call setup success rate, speech quality, and mobile data download and upload speeds. The TRAI Regional Office in Hyderabad supervised the exercise.
Tests covered roads, hotspots and walk routes
TRAI’s agency tested mobile networks along 157.9 km of city roads, 12 hotspot locations and a 3.1 km walk route. The survey covered Nallagandla, Hafeezpet, Madhapur, Dargah Road, Ameerpet, Mehdipatnam, Shamshabad, Pahadi Shareef Road, Shaheen Nagar, Imamguda and Engine Bowli Cross Road.
The hotspot locations included AIG Hospital, Hitec City, IKEA, Lingampally Railway Station, the RTA Office at Kondapur, Mindspace and KIMS Hospitals in Secunderabad. The team also carried out the walk test at KIMS Hospitals, Secunderabad.
TRAI measured real-time network performance through live voice and data sessions on 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G networks. The tests reflected the user experience in different environments.
Jio tops download speeds
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) recorded the highest average download speed at 222.12 Mbps. Airtel followed with 66.32 Mbps, while Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) recorded 59.61 Mbps. BSNL, which operated on a 3G network during the test, recorded an average download speed of 5.55 Mbps.
Airtel led the upload speed rankings with an average of 24.54 Mbps. RJIL recorded 19.43 Mbps, followed by VIL at 13.17 Mbps. BSNL recorded an average upload speed of 2.54 Mbps.
Airtel, RJIL and VIL recorded zero dropped calls during the test period. BSNL recorded eight dropped calls out of 197 successfully established calls.
BSNL also recorded the highest number of poor signal samples. It logged 3,763 poor signal samples out of 21,201 observations and reported 44 instances of no network coverage. Airtel recorded 247 poor signal samples out of 22,317 observations. RJIL recorded 319 poor signal samples out of 22,063 observations, while VIL recorded 566 out of 22,416 observations. Airtel, RJIL and VIL reported no complete loss of network coverage.
During the voice quality assessment, Airtel recorded two calls with silence lasting more than three seconds out of 197 calls. BSNL recorded 10 such calls out of 170. RJIL recorded none out of 191 calls, while VIL recorded two out of 195 calls.
TRAI said the findings reflect network performance only on the selected routes, locations and during the time of testing. The regulator has shared the results with the telecom service providers and asked them to improve service quality where necessary.
