All telecom service providers expect Aircel and MTNL, met the drop call benchmark in the National Capital Region, reveals the latest drive test conducted by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). For data services, Airtel logged the best speed for 4G network, while MTNL topped the list for 3G network.
The independent drive test was conducted by PhiMetrics Technologies on the regulator’s behalf in the Delhi service area, including Ghaziabad, Noida, Gurugram and Faridabad. The tests were conducted from February 20 to March 16, 2018, covering a drive test route of 2,300 km.
3,150 calls made
Public sector telecom firm MTNL turned out to be the worst performer with a drop call rate of 19.5% on 2G network and 8.3% on 3G network, against the benchmark of 2%. Aircel at 5.7%, too, failed to meet the call drop rate on 2G network.
For voice tests, the regulator said about 3,150 calls were made across networks and bands (e.g. 2G, 3G and 4G), while for data, tests were performed at 23 static locations for five days on March 12-16. For data, the maximum download transmission rate was achieved by MTNL for 3G services (3.7 Mbps) and Airtel for 4G services (8.9 Mpbs). For 4G services, Jio registered an average download transmission rate of 7.3 Mbps and Vodafone registered 4.9 Mbps. On the 3G network, MTNL was followed by Airtel (3.3 Mbps), Vodafone (2.3 Mbps) and Idea (2 Mbps). On the average time taken to load a website, the tests found that for 4G, Airtel took the least amount of time (6.7 seconds), followed by Jio (7.2 seconds) and Vodafone (9 seconds).
For 3G services, average time taken to load a website stood at 10.2 seconds for MTNL, 11.6 seconds for Vodafone, 11.7 seconds for Airtel, and 13.2 seconds for Idea.
On 4G networks, while Airtel took an average 1.7 seconds to fully load a video, for Jio the average time taken was 2.6 seconds and for Vodafone 2.7 seconds. MTNL took the least amount of time for 3G network (2.3 seconds), followed by Airtel (2.6 seconds), Idea (2.9 seconds) and Vodafone (3.2 seconds).
