CORRESPONDENT
SHILLONG: Reliance Jio has emerged as the top performer in Shillong and East Khasi Hills district, recording a Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR) of 99.12% in Auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G) and maintaining one of the lowest call drop rates at 0.89%, according to the Independent Drive Test (IDT) results released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for the North-East LSA.
The TRAI findings, based on a detailed drive test conducted between September 1 and 5, 2025, covered 269.4 km of city routes, nine hotspot locations, and 1.6 km of walk tests across Shillong and East Khasi Hills. Conducted under the supervision of the TRAI Regional Office, Kolkata, the test assessed both voice and data service quality across multiple technologies—2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G—to gauge real-world network performance in diverse environments, including urban zones, institutional hubs, rural clusters, and tourist hotspots.
The test covered prominent locations such as the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, Elephant Falls, IIM Shillong, ISBT Mawlai-Mawiong, Mawphlang Sacred Forest, Mawsmai Cave Cherrapunji, Police Bazaar, Seven Sisters Waterfall, and Umiam Lake, along with walk tests at Civil Hospital Shillong, Ward’s Lake, and the Legislative Assembly compound. According to TRAI, Airtel, BSNL, Reliance Jio (RJIL), and Vodafone Idea (VIL) registered CSSR of 96.34%, 73.63%, 99.12%, and 80.20% respectively in Auto-selection mode. The call drop rates stood at 2.46% (Airtel), 12.19% (BSNL), 0.89% (RJIL), and 3.49% (VIL).
In terms of data performance, Reliance Jio’s 5G network delivered the highest average download speed of 157.15 Mbps and upload speed of 10.89 Mbps during the city drive. Airtel followed with an average download speed of 55.11 Mbps, while BSNL lagged at 0.98 Mbps, and VIL recorded 17.32 Mbps.
Latency tests showed Jio achieving the lowest average latency at 20.85 ms, followed by Airtel (28.80 ms), VIL (46.35 ms), and BSNL (82.00 ms). At hotspot zones, Jio’s 5G download and upload speeds peaked at 204.70 Mbps and 14.53 Mbps respectively, while Airtel’s 5G network recorded 136.70 Mbps download and 14.56 Mbps upload speeds.
The tests used TRAI-specified equipment and standardized protocols under real-time conditions. TRAI confirmed that it has shared the findings with all concerned telecom service providers (TSPs).
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