The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released its Independent Drive Test (IDT) findings for the Tamil Nadu Licensed Service Area (LSA), covering extensive city of Salem City in the month of August 2025. The drive tests conducted under the supervision of the TRAI Regional Office, Hyderabad, were designed to capture real-world mobile network performance across diverse usage environments- Urban Zones, Institutional Hotspots, rural residential areas etc. 

Between 11^th August 2025 to 14^th August 2025, TRAI teams conducted detailed tests for 410 Kms Salem City drive test, 5.8 Km Walk test and 8 Hotspot locations. Technologies evaluated included 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G, reflecting the service experience of users across multiple handset capabilities. The findings of the IDT have been intimated to all the TSPs concerned.

Key Parameters Assessed:

a) Voice Services: Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR), Drop Call Rate (DCR), Call Setup Time, Call Silence Rate, Speech Quality (MOS), Coverage.

b) Data Services: Download/Upload Throughput, Latency, Jitter, Packet Drop Rate, and Video Streaming Delay.

The overall mobile network performance in Salem city is summarized below:

Call Setup Success Rate - Airtel, BSNL, RJIL and VIL have 100.00%, 87.85%, 99.80% and 99.60% call setup success rate respectively in auto-selection mode

Drop Call Rate - Airtel, BSNL, RJIL and VIL drop call rate is 0.00%, 5.32%, 0.40% and 0.00% respectively in auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G).

CSSR: Call Setup Success Rate (in %), CST: Call Setup Time (in seconds), DCR: Drop Call Rate (in %) & MOS: Mean Opinion Score.

  

Summary-Voice services Call Setup Success Rate: Airtel, BSNL, RJIL and VIL have 100.00%, 87.85%, 99.80% and 99.60% call setup success rate respectively in Auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G). Call Setup Time: Airtel, BSNL, RJIL & VIL have call setup time of 1.15, 4.53, 0.78 and 1.64 seconds respectively in Auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G). Drop Call Rate: Airtel, BSNL, RJIL and VIL have drop call rate of 0.00%, 5.32%, 0.40% and 0.00% respectively in Auto-selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G). Call Silence/Mute Rate: Airtel, BSNL, RJIL and VIL have silence call rate of 0.83%, 1.39%, 0.84% and 0.54% respectively in packet switched network (4G/5G). Mean Opinion Score (MOS): Airtel, BSNL, RJIL and VIL have average MOS of 4.02, 3.07, 3.95 and 4.37 respectively.

 

Summary-Data services Data Download performance (Overall): Average download speed of Airtel (5G/4G/2G) is 203.99 Mbps, BSNL (4G/3G/2G) is 6.68 Mbps, RJIL (5G/4G) is 322.76 Mbps and VIL (4G/2G) is 29.95 Mbps. Data Upload performance (Overall): Average upload speed of Airtel (5G/4G/2G) is 31.78 Mbps, BSNL (4G/3G/2G) is 4.70 Mbps, RJIL (5G/4G) is 30.06 Mbps and VIL (4G/2G) is 14.62 Mbps. Latency (Overall): Airtel, BSNL, RJIL and VIL 50th percentile latency is 20.25 ms, 33.30 ms, 18.50 ms and 28.95 ms respectively. Data performance - Hotspots (in Mbps): Airtel- 4G D/L: 25.60       4G U/L: 7.89       5G D/L: 205.91     5G U/L: 30.92 BSNL- 4G D/L: 12.73       4G U/L: 9.68 RJIL-   4G D/L: 43.55       4G U/L: 12.44       5G D/L: 338.51     5G U/L: 26.88 VIL-    4G D/L: 36.57       4G U/L: 13.99 Note- “D/L” Download speed, “U/L” Upload speed

In Salem City, the assessment included the areas nearby Vennandur, Veerapandi, Magudanchavadi, Karikkapatti, Tharamangalam, Mecheri, Omalur, Nethimedu, Suramangalam, Fairlands, Ammapet, Agrahara Nattamangalam, Belur, Seshanchavadi etc.

 Walk test at Salem Junction Railway Station in Salem City.

TRAI also evaluated real-world conditions at 1.New Bus Stand Salem 2.⁠Salem Collector Office 3.⁠Salem Govt. Arts College 4.Salem Junction Railway Station 5. ⁠Salem Old Bus Stand 6. Salem Periyar University 7. Salem Steel Plant 8.⁠Shevapet Govt. Hospital in Salem City to reflect stationary user experience.

The tests were conducted using TRAI suggested equipment and standardised protocols in real-time environments. The detailed report is available at TRAI website www.trai.gov.in. For any clarification/information, Shri B. Praveen Kumar, Advisor (Regional Office, Hyderabad) TRAI may be contacted on email: adv.hyderabad@trai.gov.in or at Tel. No. +91-40-23000761.

 

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