The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released the results of its Independent Drive Test (IDT) for the Delhi Licensed Service Area, assessing how mobile networks actually perform on the ground during October 2025. Tests covered 402 km of city routes, 14 hotspot locations, 6.1 km of walk tests and inter‑operator calling, across 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G services.
Scope and methodology
TRAI’s teams drove through dense urban neighbourhoods and major institutional and commercial hubs, including areas such as Shalimar Bagh, Paschim Vihar, Dwarka, Rohini, Kirti Nagar, Cyber Hub Gurugram and several metro stations and schools. The tests captured real‑world performance for voice and data in vehicles, at busy public places and on crowded pedestrian routes, using standardised equipment and protocols approved by the regulator.
Voice service performance
For call setup success rate (CSSR), Airtel and RJIL (Jio) recorded around 99.5% and 99.3% respectively, while VIL (Vodafone Idea) stood near 98.6% and MTNL lagged at about 86.5% in auto‑selection mode. Drop call rates were virtually zero for Airtel and RJIL, about 0.2% for VIL and a high 7.46% for MTNL, highlighting a marked quality gap on the legacy MTNL network.
Call quality and user experience
Average call setup times were well under one second for RJIL, VIL and Airtel at roughly 0.66–0.82 seconds, while MTNL connections took over 3.6 seconds to be established. Mean Opinion Score (MOS), which reflects perceived voice clarity, was highest for VIL at 4.38, followed by Airtel at 4.00, RJIL at 3.80 and MTNL at 2.73, with silence/mute issues reported at relatively low levels for the packet‑switched 4G/5G networks.
Overall data download and upload speeds
In combined 5G/4G/2G measurements, RJIL delivered the fastest average download speed at about 249 Mbps, closely followed by Airtel at around 234 Mbps, while VIL averaged roughly 23.8 Mbps and MTNL’s 3G/2G network trailed at about 5 Mbps. For uploads, Airtel led with roughly 31.8 Mbps, followed by RJIL at 26 Mbps, VIL at 11.4 Mbps and MTNL at just 1.68 Mbps, underscoring the gulf between modern 5G/4G networks and legacy platforms.
Latency and hotspot performance
Median latency (50th percentile) was lowest for Airtel at about 11.7 ms, with RJIL around 15.2 ms, MTNL around 21.3 ms and VIL at roughly 35 ms, indicating quicker response times on the leading 5G/4G networks. At hotspot locations, RJIL’s 5G downlink speeds reached nearly 292 Mbps and Airtel’s about 235 Mbps, while VIL’s 5G clocked about 30 Mbps; on 4G, hotspot downlink speeds ranged from roughly 18 Mbps for VIL to over 44 Mbps for RJIL.
Coverage gaps and technology mix
TRAI noted that 4G and 5G services were not observed on MTNL during the tests, meaning its users in Delhi still rely primarily on 3G/2G networks with significantly lower speeds and poorer voice quality. By contrast, Airtel, RJIL and VIL offered multi‑generation coverage, with 5G contributing strongly to the highest data speeds, especially along high‑traffic corridors and institutional clusters.
Implications and next steps
The regulator has already shared operator‑wise findings with all telecom service providers so they can address localised gaps in coverage, call drops, latency and throughput. Detailed results, including route‑wise and location‑wise performance, are available on TRAI’s website, and the authority has invited stakeholders to seek clarifications from its Delhi regional office.
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Source: PIB
