TRAI Assesses Mobile Network Quality across Sagar and Raigarh City under MP LSA

📌 Summary:

• TRAI released findings of Independent Drive Test (IDT) conducted 16–21 March 2026 across Sagar and Raigarh cities under MP Licensed Service Area (LSA)
• Tests covered 455.1 km of city drive, 16 hotspot locations and 9.7 km of walk-test using live 2G/3G/4G/5G SIM cards of Airtel, BSNL, RJIL and VIL
• Key QoS parameters: Coverage Gap, Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR), Drop Call Rate (DCR), Call Setup Time, Call Silence (>3s), Speech Quality (MOS), Download/Upload Throughput, Latency, Jitter, Packet Drop
• Sagar download speeds: Airtel 98.22 Mbps, BSNL 15.73 Mbps, RJIL 277.28 Mbps, VIL 35.85 Mbps; Raigarh: Airtel 98.78, BSNL 16.08, RJIL 172.64, VIL 21.72 Mbps
• BSNL shows weakest coverage in both cities (3,404/31,918 poor-signal samples in Sagar; 8,026/29,127 in Raigarh); RJIL has fewest coverage gaps
• Reports published to empower consumers and pressurise TSPs to improve QoS — a transparency-led regulatory technique
• Supervised by TRAI Regional Office Bhopal; methodology auto-selects best available network across 5G/4G/3G/2G during voice testing

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS3 — Indian Economy — Telecom infrastructure and consumer-facing regulation; GS2 — Statutory regulatory bodies (TRAI) and accountability mechanisms.

📝 Prelims Facts:

• TRAI = Telecom Regulatory Authority of India; statutory body under TRAI Act, 1997
• LSA = Licensed Service Area; MP LSA covers Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh telecom service area
• Key QoS metrics: CSSR (Call Setup Success Rate), DCR (Drop Call Rate), MOS (Mean Opinion Score for speech quality)
• IDT supervised by TRAI Regional Office Bhopal for this round
• Major TSPs assessed: Bharti Airtel, BSNL, Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL), Vodafone-Idea (VIL)
• TRAI also has appellate body — TDSAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal)

🔑 Key Term: Independent Drive Test (IDT) — TRAI's on-ground assessment methodology where live voice/data sessions are run over multiple TSP SIMs along defined routes, hotspots and walk-tests to capture the real-world mobile QoS that consumers actually experience — a complement to TSPs' self-reported network performance.