Telecom major Reliance Jio has topped in data speed and call setup success rate, while Bharti Airtel emerged best in terms of the lowest call drops, according to the latest independent drive tests conducted by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The quality assessments were carried out across multiple highways and routes in March 2025 to evaluate mobile operators’ performance in both voice and data services.

As per a ANI report, TRAI’s drive tests were conducted across various Licensed Service Areas (LSAs), including cities and routes like Nagpur, Prayagraj to Kanpur railway line, Mumbai-Pune Expressway, Ambala, Chennai to Coimbatore highway, and the Srinagar and Indore city zones. The drive tests assessed critical metrics such as call setup success rate, call drop rate (DCR), speech quality using MOS (Mean Opinion Score), packet voice drop rate, data upload/download speeds, and call silence occurrences.

In voice services, Reliance Jio and Vodafone performed well in terms of call setup success across most tested routes. However, Jio stood out distinctly for connecting calls in the shortest time on all the drive test routes. Airtel, meanwhile, outperformed all others in the call drop category, recording the lowest drop rates in five out of the seven tested routes. TRAI also observed that Airtel was the most efficient when it came to minimising call silence.

In the data segment, Jio once again led the performance charts. It delivered the highest internet download speeds across all routes and topped the upload speed charts in five of the seven tested locations. Airtel outperformed others in the remaining two. This reinforces Jio’s dominance in the data-driven mobile experience in the country.

BSNL, on the other hand, failed to outperform any of the private telecom operators across the measured parameters, revealing the public sector operator’s continued struggle in keeping pace with the industry standards.

These independent drive tests, conducted by TRAI-appointed agencies, are aimed at gauging the real-time performance of telecom operators using technologies ranging from 2G to 5G. However, the regulator noted that the findings reflect only the conditions on the specific days and routes tested and are not a nationwide quality verdict.