The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released its independent drive test (IDT) findings for the West Bengal licensed service area (LSA), covering extensive city routes of North 24 Parganas and Nadia districts and adjoining areas, highway route of Barasat to Raiganj along NH- 12 and railway route from Howrah to Bardhaman via Bandel in the month of February 2026. The drive tests, conducted under the supervision of the TRAI regional office, Kolkata, were designed to capture real-world mobile network performance across diverse usage environments- urban zones, institutional hotspots, business areas, residential areas, experience of passengers and others along the rail route etc.

Between February 10, 2026 and February 21, 2026, TRAI teams conduced detailed tests across city routes of North 24 Parganas and Nadia districts and adjoining areas, highway route of Barasat to Raiganj along NH- 12 and railway route from Howrah to Bardhaman via Bandel in West Bengal LSA covering 436.3 kilometre (kms) of city drive test, 28 hotspot locations, 4.4 Km of walk test, 363.6 Km of highway drive test, and 107.3 Km railway drive test. Technologies evaluated included 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G, reflecting the service experience of users across multiple handset capabilities. The findings of the IDT have already been intimated to all the telecom service providers concerned.

Key parameters assessed include call setup success rate, drop call rate, call setup time, call silence rate, speech quality, coverage, download/upload throughput, latency, jitter, packet drop rate, and video streaming delay.

As per the tests, Bharti Airtel, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi) had 96.66 per cent, 83.79 per cent, 99.72 per cent and 99.91 per cent call setup success rate while a drop call rate of 0.00 per cent, 5.85 per cent, 0.55 per cent and 0.55 per cent respectively in auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G).

In the city IDT route in case of Airtel, BSNL, Jio and Vi, the poor signal strength in auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G) has been observed during voice testing (1.60 per cent, 34.01 per cent, 2.13 per cent and 5.91 per cent respectively) and data testing (11.36 per cent, 29.72 per cent, 9.87 per cent and 17.10 per cent respectively).

Further, in the highway IDT route in case of Airtel, BSNL, Jio and Vi, the poor signal strength in auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G) has been observed during voice testing (0.47 per cent, 27.80 per cent, 0.55 per cent and 1.49 per cent respectively) and data testing (6.68 per cent, 27.99 per cent, 8.28 per cent and 6.32 per cent respectively).

Furthermore, in the railway IDT route in case of Airtel, BSNL, Jio and Vi, the poor signal strength in auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G) has been observed during voice testing (0.66 per cent, 8.17 per cent, 0.65 per cent and 2.97 per cent respectively) and data testing (6.19 per cent, 35.51 per cent, 6.57 per cent and 8.94 per cent respectively).

In North 24 Parganas and Nadia districts, the assessment included the areas of Habra, Kankpul, Sherpur More, South Habra, Bagjola, Gurdaha, Kholapota, Berachampa, Haroa, Minakhan, Nazat, Kharampur, Hasnabad, Basirhat, Akharpur, Aturia, Tentulia, Maslandapur, Dhakuria, Angrail, Bangaon, Chakdaha, Simurali, Ranaghat, Birnagar, Krishananagar, Gobindapur, Badkulla, Kanthaliamath and Mayapur etc. and for Highway from Barasat to Raiganj passing through Amdanga, Ranaghat, Krishnanagar, Debagram, Bhabta, Morgram, Sadikpur, Farakka, Gazole and Rupahar etc.