MUMBAI: Reliance Jio topped the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) latest independent drive test in Mumbai, recording the fastest mobile data speeds and zero dropped calls on the surveyed routes, while Vodafone Idea (Vi) posted the fewest coverage gaps.Airtel also delivered a strong overall performance, whereas MTNL lagged on coverage and call quality.The findings, released on Monday, are based on drive tests conducted by TRAI between June 10 and 12 across 204.3 km of Mumbai roads and seven high-footfall locations, including CSMT, Churchgate, Dadar and Byculla railway stations, Gateway of India, Marine Drive and Parel station.The assessment evaluated 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G network performance under real-world conditions.In mobile data performance, Jio recorded the highest average download speed at 237.81 Mbps, more than twice Airtel’s 93.76 Mbps and well ahead of Vi’s 70.69 Mbps.Jio also led in upload speeds with 40.92 Mbps, compared with 25.92 Mbps for Airtel and 25.57 Mbps for Vi. MTNL’s mobile data throughput was not available in the assessment.Jio also emerged as the best performer in voice services, recording zero dropped calls out of 489 successfully established calls during the test. Airtel and Vi reported one dropped call each, while MTNL recorded 28 dropped calls out of 203 established calls.In terms of coverage, Vi performed the best, registering only five poor-signal samples out of 54,511 observations. Airtel recorded 102 poor-signal samples, while Jio logged 144. MTNL fared the worst, with poor signal strength in 17,877 of 23,461 samples and no coverage in another 7,325 samples.For the call silence parameter, where users experience silence for more than three seconds despite an active call, Jio and Vi recorded one instance each, while Airtel reported 23 instances across 14 calls. MTNL was not assessed for this parameter.The drive test covered major routes, including the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, Mahim, Dadar, Sion, Antop Hill, Worli, Parel, Sewri, Haji Ali, Mumbai Central, Byculla, Malabar Hill, Girgaon, Mazgaon and Churchgate.TRAI said the findings reflect network performance only on the routes, locations and time during which the tests were conducted. The results have been shared with telecom operators for corrective action where required, and the detailed reports have been uploaded to the regulator’s website.
