Airtel leads in voice call performance in Kolkata, Jio in data download
Times of India | 21 February 2025
12 Kolkata: Bharti Airtel has emerged as one of the best-performing networks in Kolkata, edging past others in voice call performance, according to a study by TRAI. However, in data, Jio had an edge over its competitors, revealed TRAI's Independent Drive Test, conducted last Nov.
The telecom regulator conducted the test to assess the quality of service of mobile networks in Kolkata. It was done by RedMango Analytics Pvt Ltd, on behalf of TRAI, from Nov 5-9, 2024. The goal was to measure voice and data performance for different telecom operators and technologies (2G/3G/4G/5G).
The city route included Budge Budge, Maheshtala, Kalua, Kamalgazi, EMB, Lake Town, Bidhannagar, Dum Dum, Baranagar, Kalyani-Barrackpore Expressway and others. The walk tests were done at City Centre New Town and Kolkata airport. The service operators were Airtel, Jio, BSNL and Vodafone.
Per the study, in call setup success rate (CSSR) in auto selection mode (5G/4G/3G/2G), Airtel and Jio were at 100% while BSNL stood at 99.2%. CSSR is defined as the ratio of established calls to call attempts.
In call setup time, Airtel and Jio were the fastest, followed by Vodafone, while BSNL was the slowest. The call setup time (seconds) is the time taken from call initiation to call alerting/ringing. In voice quality, Vodafone had an edge over others at 4.2, closely followed by Airtel at 4, while Jio was a bit behind at 3.8 and BSNL was at 2.9. In voice quality measurement in telecom parlance, 4 is considered good while 3 is fair.
In data performance, specifically download and upload speeds (Mbps), Jio was at 309 and 35, respectively, while Airtel was at 210 and 47. Vodafone was much behind in this respect. In operator-specific key findings, per the study, Airtel recorded the best voice quality, 0% call drop and good call setup time, along with high-speed 5G & 4G performance and strong coverage.
BSNL had the longest call setup time, a high call drop rate and poor data speeds. For Jio, the download speed was highest but the upload speed was lower than Airtel's. Vodafone had a higher silence call instance compared to others, though its call success rate was highest. Incidentally, a call with a greater than or equal to 4-second continuous gap is considered a silence call.
According to the study at City Centre Salt Lake, Airtel had the best download throughout with an average speed of 306 Mbps in auto mode (5G/4G/3G/2G). As far as silence calls in packet-switched networks (4G/5G) were concerned, Airtel, Jio and VIL had 0.3%, 0.3% and 3.2% silence call rates, respectively.
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