Airtel, Jio, VI or BSNL: Which Is the Fastest, Best Mobile Network in Chandigarh Region? Here’s What TRAI Found
Best Mobile Network: If you live in Chandigarh, Mohali or Panchkula and have ever wondered whether to switch your mobile operator, TRAI just did the homework for you — across 453 kilometres of real roads, in real traffic
North Desk Correspondent
Chandigarh, June 8
When the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India recently sent a team to drive 453 kilometres across Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula— testing mobile networks in real time, on real roads, in real traffic — the results turned out to be a near-perfect report card for India’s private telecom sector and an uncomfortable one for its only surviving government-owned operator.
TRAI released the findings of its Independent Drive Test (IDT) for the Chandigarh-Mohali-Panchkula Urban Area on Monday, offering consumers in the tricity the most granular, independently verified picture of network quality they have had in years. Four operators were tested: Airtel, Reliance Jio (RJIL), Vodafone Idea (VIL) and BSNL. The verdict, across almost every parameter, was the same: if you are on BSNL, you are on the weakest network in town.
Zero Drops vs 24: The Number That Defines the Test
The starkest single finding of the entire exercise was on dropped calls. Over the course of the drive test, Airtel successfully established 566 calls. The number of those calls that dropped midway: zero. Not one. Jio dropped 4 out of 554 calls. Vodafone Idea dropped 2 out of 542. BSNL dropped 24 out of 534 — a call drop rate that is not just the worst among the four, but one that puts it in a different category altogether.
For anyone who has ever been on a call that cuts out at a crucial moment — mid-sentence with a client, mid-update from a doctor, mid-argument with a spouse — that number means something.
Signal Strength: BSNL Is 80 Times Worse Than Airtel
The coverage gap data — which measures how often a network’s signal falls below the minimum usable threshold — tells a similar story. Airtel recorded poor signal in just 97 samples out of 63,149 collected across the drive test route. Jio had 356 poor-signal samples. Vodafone Idea had 382. BSNL had 7,755 — roughly 80 times worse than Airtel, and more than 20 times worse than its nearest private sector rival.
To be clear about what this means on the ground: BSNL users on the tricity’s roads, markets and residential sectors are far more likely to find themselves in a dead zone than users on any private network.
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Speed Race: Jio Leads, Airtel Close, BSNL Distant
Best Mobile Network: On data speeds — the parameter most urban consumers now care about most — the private sector again dominates, though with more differentiation between operators.
Jio recorded the highest average download speed at 203.16 Mbps, with Airtel close behind at 169.66 Mbps. Vodafone Idea came in at 48.27 Mbps — a meaningful gap from the top two but still usable for most everyday tasks. BSNL averaged 11 Mbps on download.
Upload speeds followed a broadly similar pattern: Jio at 23.85 Mbps, Airtel at 23.28 Mbps, Vodafone Idea at 17.97 Mbps, and BSNL at 4.96 Mbps.
There is one detail in these numbers worth pausing on. Every operator — including BSNL — significantly exceeded the typical speeds they had declared to TRAI for the month. Airtel had declared a typical download speed of 18.36 Mbps and delivered 169.66 Mbps. Jio had declared 15 Mbps and delivered 203 Mbps. The gap between declared and delivered speeds raises a legitimate question: are operators deliberately low-balling their declared figures to avoid regulatory scrutiny, and if so, should TRAI be looking more closely at how those benchmarks are set?
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The BSNL Question
Best Mobile Network: There is an unavoidable irony in these results. Chandigarh is a Union Territory — a city administered directly by the Central Government, home to the headquarters of two state governments, scores of Central government offices, and a population with an unusually high proportion of government employees, many of whom are on BSNL connections either by default or by institutional inertia.
The government’s own telecom operator, in the government’s own city, finished last. On every count.
BSNL has been undergoing a much-publicised revival effort, with the government having committed substantial funds toward upgrading its network infrastructure. The tricity drive test results from April 2026 suggest that revival, whatever its pace nationally, has not yet translated into competitive performance on the ground where it matters most.
How the Test Was Conducted
Best Mobile Network: TRAI’s appointed agency conducted the drive test between April 6 and April 10, 2026, covering 453.2 km of city roads, 15 hotspot locations and a 1.5 km walk test across the tricity. The test covered major city corridors and localities including Panchkula, Zirakpur, Dera Bassi, Kharar, New Chandigarh, Nayagaon, Mohali sectors, and the central Chandigarh sector grid. Live voice and data sessions were run simultaneously on SIM cards from all four operators across 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G networks. The findings on the fastest and best mobile network and the rest have been shared with all operators for corrective action.
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