In Kolkata Jio & Airtel Tops, Vi & BSNL far away 3rd and 4th - TRAI's Quality Check

Few days back TRAI did a very realistic speedtest survey in Kolkata including all 4 mobile service providers. As TRAI tweeted on X, TRAI's Independent Drive Test brings you a closer look at mobile network performance across parts of Kolkata city, Howrah and Hooghly districts under Kolkata LSA. TRAI most probably used their own app - TRAI MySpeed App (Android, iOS) but the results include multiple parameters like poor signal, dropped calls, call silence and speed during upload and download. 

Though we got several speed tests by end users, TRAI's quality check testing is way beyond the traditional speed test - it truly checks the network with poor signal and dropped calls. 

Not only in Kolkata, TRAI did continued their testing in multiple areas as of now. The regions are (updated til 6th November, 2026):
1. across parts of South Andaman district and the coastal route from Port Blair to Havelock under West Bengal LSA; 
2. along the Hosapete–Banavikallu highway via NH-50 in Karnataka LSA; 
3. across Gonda, Bahraich, Shravasti and Balrampur city, along with the Prayagraj to Gonda and Gonda to Bahraich highway routes; 
4. across the Kachchh region, including Gandhidham and Bhuj cities, as well as the Bhuj to Bachau highway route under Gujarat LSA; 
5. across Adoni–Mantralayam and areas near Hyderabad in the Andhra Pradesh LSA; 
6. across Leh (Ladakh) and nearby areas in the Jammu & Kashmir LSA;

7. across Nuh, Palwal & adjoining areas in Haryana LSA

So from the above data, Jio and Airtel goes almost same to same in all 4 quality checks, while Vi remains 3rd and BSNL 4th. But Vi and BSNL both are way behind the toppers. BSNL's average downlink 7.98Mbps on 4G while fastest Jio 5G got 297.95Mbps. Interestingly Vi, though launched 5G in Kolkata, is offering average downlink speed of 49.06Mbps only. 

In my testing with SpeedTest app, Vi 5G is too slow - below 100Mbps. The reason is Vi is still using 5G-NSA with LTE Core. As a result though I am getting 5G signal but that's actually 4G. 

Vi SpeedTest Results

And when Vi goes 4G only - the downlink ranging from 35-55Mbps. One thing I also find with Vi, it has lower ping time in indoor in remote places, may be due to it has lower network load. 

BSNL though offering more pocket-friendly plans, their network is still 4G only. And so poor is their network as you can see from the TRAI's photo. 

Check out Vi 5G NSA - Speedtest in Kolkata - https://drrdb.blogspot.com/2025/10/vi-5g-speedtest-results-in-kolkata.html