The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released its Independent Drive Test (IDT) findings for the Tamil Nadu Licensed Service Area (LSA), covering extensive city of Puducherry surrounding areas in the month of February 2026. The drive tests conducted under the supervision of the TRAI Regional Office, Hyderabad, were designed to capture real-world mobile network performance across diverse usage environments- Urban Zones, Institutional Hotspots, rural residential areas etc. 

Between 5^th February 2026 to 7^th February 2026, TRAI teams conducted detailed tests for 313.2 Kms Puducherry City drive test and 8 Hotspot locations. Technologies evaluated included 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G, reflecting the service experience of users across multiple handset capabilities. The findings of the IDT have been intimated to all the TSPs concerned.

Key Parameters Assessed:

 

a) Voice Services: Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR), Drop Call Rate (DCR), Call Setup Time, Call Silence Rate, Speech Quality (MOS), Coverage.

 

The overall mobile network performance in Puducherry city is summarized below:

 

Call Setup Success Rate: Airtel, BSNL, RJIL and VIL have 100.00%, 90.91%, 98.84% and 99.61% call setup success rate respectively in Auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G).

 

b) Data Services: Download/Upload Throughput, Latency, Jitter, Packet Drop Rate, and Video Streaming Delay.

 

Average download speed of Airtel (5G/4G/2G) is 163.82 Mbps, BSNL (4G/3G/2G) is 12.71 Mbps, RJIL (5G/4G) is 253.84 Mbps and VIL (4G/2G) is 22.05 Mbps.

 

CSSR: Call Setup Success Rate (in %), CST: Call Setup Time (in seconds), DCR: Drop Call Rate (in %) & MOS: Mean Opinion Score.

 

Summary-Voice services Call Setup Success Rate: Airtel, BSNL, RJIL and VIL have 100.00%, 90.91%, 98.84% and 99.61% call setup success rate respectively in Auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G). Call Setup Time: Airtel, BSNL, RJIL and VIL have call setup time of 1.15, 4.50, 0.71 and 1.86 seconds respectively in Auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G). Drop Call Rate: Airtel, BSNL, RJIL and VIL have drop call rate of 0.00%, 1.46%, 0.39% and 0.00% respectively in Auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G). Call Silence/Mute Rate: Airtel, BSNL, RJIL and VIL have silence call rate of 0.24%, 4.16%, 0.96% and 0.23% respectively in packet switched network (4G/5G). Mean Opinion Score (MOS): Airtel, BSNL, RJIL and VIL have average MOS of 4.00, 3.01, 4.45 and 4.42 respectively. The Poor signal strength in auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G) during voice testing has been observed in 1.17%, 6.93%, 2.42% & 1.60% of the City IDT route in case of Airtel, BSNL, RJIL and VIL respectively.

Summary-Data services Data Download performance (Overall): Average download speed of Airtel (5G/4G/2G) is 163.82 Mbps, BSNL (4G/3G/2G) is 12.71 Mbps, RJIL (5G/4G) is 253.84 Mbps and VIL (4G/2G) is 22.05 Mbps. Data Upload performance (Overall): Average upload speed of Airtel (5G/4G/2G) is 27.94 Mbps, BSNL (4G/3G/2G) is 5.11 Mbps, RJIL (5G/4G) is 16.92 Mbps and VIL (4G/2G) is 13.03 Mbps. Latency (Overall): Airtel, BSNL, RJIL and VIL 50th percentile latency is 41.50 ms, 42.47 ms, 25.94 ms & 32.81 ms respectively. Data performance - Hotspots (in Mbps): Airtel- 4G D/L: 33.84         4G U/L: 11.67             5G D/L: 230.03      5G U/L: 51.54 BSNL- 4G D/L: 6.97          4G U/L: 6.90 RJIL-   4G D/L: 42.08        4G U/L: 7.98             5G D/L: 259.37      5G U/L: 13.03 VIL-    4G D/L: 17.76        4G U/L: 13.46   Note- “D/L” Download speed, “U/L” Upload speed The Poor signal strength in auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G) during data testing has been observed in 9.07%, 12.16%, 15.35% & 6.53% of the City IDT route in case of Airtel, BSNL, RJIL and VIL respectively.

 

 

In Puducherry City, the assessment included the areas nearby Semmangalam, Sedarapet, Villianur, Lawspet, White Town, Muthialpet, Murungapakkam, Ariyankuppam, Thavalakuppam, Embalam, Bahour, Kanniakoil, Kalapet, Pillaichavady and Bommayapalayam etc.

TRAI also evaluated real-world conditions at 1.Aurobindo Ashram/French Colony 2.Auroville International Society 3.JIPMER Medical College 4.Pondicherry University 5.Puducherry Airport 6.Puducherry Bus Station 7.Puducherry Railway Station 8.Rajiv Gandhi Government Women and Children Hospital in Puducherry City to reflect stationary user experience.

The tests were conducted using TRAI suggested equipment and standardised protocols in real-time environments. The detailed report is available at TRAI website www.trai.gov.in. For any clarification/information, Shri B. Praveen Kumar, Advisor (Regional Office, Hyderabad) TRAI may be contacted on email: adv.hyderabad@trai.gov.in or at Tel. No. +91-40-23000761.

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