New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released the findings of an independent mobile network quality assessment conducted across Uttara Kannada district in Karnataka, revealing significant differences in network performance among telecom operators.
The drive tests, carried out between May 18 and 21, 2026, assessed the quality of voice and data services offered by Airtel, BSNL, Reliance Jio (RJIL) and Vodafone Idea (Vi) across cities, railway routes, public transport hubs and other high-footfall locations.
According to the report, Reliance Jio recorded the highest average download speed of 229.12 Mbps, followed by Airtel at 109.02 Mbps, Vodafone Idea at 25.04 Mbps and BSNL at 5.73 Mbps.
For upload speeds, Airtel topped the chart with an average of 26.02 Mbps, ahead of Reliance Jio (18.19 Mbps), Vodafone Idea (10.78 Mbps) and BSNL (2.07 Mbps).
The regulator also evaluated network coverage, call drops, call setup success rate, call silence instances and data performance. During the tests, Airtel recorded 14 dropped calls out of 311 successful calls, BSNL 28 out of 306, Reliance Jio 17 out of 346, and Vodafone Idea 12 out of 260.
The assessment covered 440.5 km of city roads, 761 km of railway routes, 12 hotspot locations, and 8.7 km of walk-test routes across Karwar and other parts of Uttara Kannada district. Areas surveyed included Karwar, Ankola, Kumta, Sirsi, Bhatkal, Dandeli, Haliyal, Yellapur and several neighbouring locations.
TRAI said the findings have been shared with the respective telecom service providers to help improve network quality. The regulator conducts such independent drive tests periodically to assess real-time mobile service quality and provide consumers with transparent information on network performance across the country.
