Trai drive test find poor network coverage across all telcos on Delhi NCR Metro routes

Telecom regulator Trai has found poor network coverage across Delhi NCR metro routes during an independent drive test carried out in April, an official statement said on Monday.

There was even no coverage in thousands of samples collected during the test drive, according to the details shared by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

“The signal strength observed during voice testing on the drive test route in auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G), measured as the number of samples having poor signal strength out of the total samples collected, was 1,280 out of 52,666 for Airtel, 20,768 out of 43,220 for MTNL, 1,297 out of 52,325 for RJIL (Reliance Jio) and 1,490 out of 52,753 for VIL (Vodafone Idea),” Trai said.

Trai, through its appointed agency, conducted drive tests across 490 kilometres of metro routes during April 1 to 4 and April 14 in Delhi LSA.

The test route for mobile network quality across metro routes included Sector-51 Noida to Depot Station (Aqua Line), Dwarka Sector-21 to Noida Electronic City (Blue Line 1), Vaishali to Yamuna Bank (Blue Line 2), Kirti Nagar to Brigadier Hoshiyar Singh (Green Line), Dwarka to Dhansa Bus Stand (Grey Line), Botanical Garden to Krishna Park Extension (Magenta Line), Deepali Chowk to Majlis Park (Magenta Line Ext.).

Out of 1,280 poor samples of Airtel, 334 had no network coverage, 3,039 out of 20,768 poor samples of MTNL had no coverage, and 595 out of 1,297 samples of RJIL had no coverage.

Trai, however, found that download data speed of telecom operators, except MTNL (4G), was higher than the speed claimed by them.

Data download speed of RJIL was highest at 141.28 megabits per second (MBPS) against claim of 15 mbps, Airtel speed was 81.72 mbps against claim of 37.72 mbps, VIL 23.94 mbps against claim of 15 mbps. All the private telecoms have rolled out 5G network while MTNL is still on 4G network.

The network of MTNL is managed by BSNL.

The upload speed of all telecom operators was also higher than their declared throughput.

Airtel’s upload speed was highest at 25.98 mbps. It was followed by Jio with 19.99 mbps, VIL 16.96 mbps and MTNL 1.84 mbps.