What happened (TRAI IDT for the river Ganga coastal route)

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released findings of an Independent Drive Test (IDT) carried out along the river Ganga from Kolkata to Kachubaria–Gangasagar under the West Bengal Licensed Service Area (LSA) during June 2026. TRAI designed the IDT to verify real-time quality of mobile network services—voice and data—provided by telecom service providers (TSPs) for consumers.

TRAI conducted on-ground testing of all TSPs using test SIM cards and monitored live sessions using software systems. The monitoring covered multiple mobile network generations—2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G—and captured key Quality of Service (QoS) parameters including coverage, Call Drop Rate (CDR), Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR), and average data download and upload throughput.

TRAI appointed an agency to conduct the IDT under supervision of the TRAI Regional Office Kolkata. The coastal drive route length measured was 124.4 km, along with two hotspot locations at Outram Ghat, Kolkata, and LCT Jetty, Kachubaria. The test observations reflect TSP performance for the specific area/route and day/time when the drive test was conducted.

Background and earlier position (how IDT results relate to QoS monitoring)

Independent Drive Test (IDT) is a route-based, on-ground measurement approach used to assess actual mobile network performance experienced by users, rather than relying only on laboratory or network-planning assumptions. By publishing parameter-wise observations and sharing results with telecom service providers, TRAI links consumer-facing QoS with measurable performance indicators for regulatory follow-up.

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