NEW DELHI: State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has performed poorly in the Independent Drive Test (IDT) conducted by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for the Uttar Pradesh (West) Licensed Service Area (LSA) in June. According to the report, BSNL recorded the highest call drop rate and the highest incidence of call muting among major telecom operators, including Reliance Jio (RJIL), Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (VIL).
As per the findings, BSNL’s Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR) stood at 86.57%, indicating that nearly 13% of call attempts failed to connect. Its Call Setup Time (CST) — the time taken to establish a call — was measured at 3.03 seconds, significantly longer than its competitors. BSNL also recorded the highest Drop Call Rate (DCR) at 3.45% in auto-selection mode, suggesting major network issues such as poor connectivity or inadequate mobile tower coverage in the area. This comes despite government claims that BSNL has rolled out over 95,000 mobile towers across the country.
“In line with Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, BSNL has placed purchase order for indigenously developed 4G sites for pan India deployment. Supply of 4G equipment has started from September 2023 and as on 30.06.2025, total 95,537 numbers 4G sites have been installed, out of which 90,035 numbers are ON-Air. The equipment is 5G upgradable,” said Minister of State for Communications Dr. Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar in Parliament.
In comparison, RJIL and VIL demonstrated superior performance in call setup times, with average CSTs of 0.77 seconds and 0.95 seconds respectively. Surprisingly, Airtel’s CST was the highest among the private players, clocking in at 22.86 seconds. For Drop Call Rate, RJIL achieved a perfect 0.00%, while VIL and Airtel posted strong results at 0.20% and 0.23%, respectively.
When it came to call muting or silence on packet-switched networks (4G/5G), Airtel performed the best with a mute rate of 0.48%, followed by RJIL at 1.43% and VIL at 2.23%. In terms of speech quality, measured using the Mean Opinion Score (MOS), VIL led with an average of 4.40, followed by Airtel (4.01), RJIL (3.89), and BSNL trailing at 2.73, reflecting significantly inferior call clarity.
On the data performance front, RJIL (5G/4G) emerged as the clear leader in average download speed, reaching 246.47 Mbps, followed by Airtel (5G/4G) at 143.86 Mbps, VIL (4G) at 49.68 Mbps, and BSNL (across 4G/3G/2G) with a modest 4.06 Mbps. In upload speeds, RJIL again led with 34.08 Mbps, with Airtel close behind at 28.40 Mbps, VIL at 14.58 Mbps, and BSNL at 4.12 Mbps.
In terms of latency, a key measure of network responsiveness, RJIL registered the lowest at 14.50 milliseconds, followed by Airtel (16.10 ms), BSNL (31.15 ms), and VIL (34.95 ms).
The test was conducted in June 2025, covering 216.2 kilometers of city roads, 64.9 kilometers of highways, and nine major hotspots, across 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G technologies, to accurately reflect the diversity of user experience in real-world conditions. The assessment covered high-density urban neighborhoods such as Ganga Nagar, Jai Bheem Nagar, Lohia Nagar, and Meerut Cantt. It also included major public and institutional hotspots like Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut Railway Station, and PVS Mall. The Delhi to Meerut corridor via NE-3 was thoroughly tested to assess mobile connectivity during high-speed transit.