New Delhi, 24 March (H.S.):

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has rated Reliance Jio as the best performer in mobile network quality on the Jammu–Delhi highway, with Airtel and Vodafone Idea also ahead of state‑owned BSNL across key voice and data parameters.

The independent drive‑test study, conducted in February 2026 across Jammu city and the national highway linking Jammu with Delhi, shows that privately owned operators have much higher call success rates, lower call‑drop levels and significantly faster data speeds compared with BSNL.

TRAI said the tests were carried out between February 2 and February 5, 2026, covering 178.2 kilometres of city drive routes in Jammu and 620.5 kilometres of highway drive along the Jammu–Delhi corridor. An additional 3.5 kilometres of walk‑test routes and six hotspot locations were also covered, with the overall assessment spanning 101 test points under different conditions. The study evaluated 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G‑based voice and data services, tracking call‑setup success, call‑drop rates, voice quality, download and upload speeds, and latency.

In voice services, the average call‑setup success rate ranged between 98.83 per cent and 99.26 per cent. Airtel clocked 98.83 per cent, BSNL 81.62 per cent, Jio 99.12 per cent and Vodafone Idea 99.26 per cent. Drop‑call performance was strongest for Jio at 0.60 per cent, followed by Airtel at 0.74 per cent, Vodafone Idea at 1.18 per cent and BSNL at 7.87 per cent, clearly putting the state‑run carrier at a disadvantage in terms of call stability.

On data performance, Jio again led the pack with an average download speed of 295.90 Mbps, followed by Airtel at 179.53 Mbps. Vodafone Idea recorded 25.34 Mbps, while BSNL trailed far behind at just 11.30 Mbps. In upload speeds, Jio and Airtel were almost neck‑and‑neck, at 30.50 Mbps and 30.09 Mbps respectively, while Vodafone Idea achieved 16.39 Mbps and BSNL only 3.86 Mbps.

Latency figures also favoured the private operators, with Jio reporting the lowest at 22.84 milliseconds, Airtel at 27.94 milliseconds, BSNL at 29.72 milliseconds and Vodafone Idea at 43.38 milliseconds.

The findings underline that on the Jammu–Delhi highway and in surrounding urban areas, private telecom companies are delivering a noticeably better mobile‑experience benchmark compared with BSNL.

The regulator has shared the results with service providers, indicating that operators will need to address gaps in coverage, signal strength and network reliability, particularly in high‑traffic highway corridors serving a large number of passengers and freight vehicles.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar