MTNL 2G and MTNL 3G have failed to meet the key performance indicators in an Independent Drive Test Report carried out by Phil Metrics Technologies Pvt Ltd on the behalf of TRAI. The drive test was carried out in Delhi and adjoining areas from 7 AM to 8 PM, 28th May to 22nd June 2019, covering route of 2220 KMs and 21 hotspot over a period of 18 days. 3600 calls were made with MTNL 2G and MTNL 3G the lone TSP to not meet the Drop Call Rate (DCR) benchmark of 2% and Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR) of 95%.
The drive monitored the performance of Airtel, Vodafone Idea, Jio, and MTNL across 2G, 3G and 4G. Delhi LSA was divided into 13 clusters for the route planning.
The report notes that bar Airtel 3G all other 3G and VoLTE service providers failed to meet the Quality Rate of 95%. MTNL 2G and MTNL 3G failed to meet the DCR and CSSR benchmark with MTNL 2G failing to complete download data test at any location.
The report further compared the findings to 2018 LSA Drive Test which revealed that 2G network performance had degraded, with 3G network performance improving. The VoLTE network performance also slightly improved.
All the metro routes continued to have poor coverage especially underground part of metro track with all service providers having poor quality rate, drop call rate, and block call rate. MTNL’s performance remained poor with a major gap between private telecos QoS compliance and MTNL’s QoS compliance.
The data services static stats revealed that Airtel had the highest download throughput at 8 Mbps in 4G network with Idea having the highest upload throughput at 3.69 Mbps in 4G network. MTNL had the highest download throughput in 3G network at 3.92 Mbps while Idea had the highest upload throughput at 1.68 Mbps.
The data services dynamic stats revealed that Jio had the highest download throughput at 6.15 Mbps in 4G network and Vodafone having the highest upload throughput at 5.04 Mbps in 4G network. MTNL led in 3G network with highest upload throughput at 4.39 Mbps while Idea had the highest upload throughput at 1.61 Mbps.
Jio VoLTE had the highest coverage at 99.19% followed by Airtel VoLTE at 98.44%. MTNL 2G had the worst coverage in Delhi at 76.99%.
As for technology and bandwidth the TSPs have in Delhi in 3G bandwidth, Airtel has 5+5 Mhz in 2100 Mhz, MTNL has 5 Mhz in 2100 Mhz, Idea has 5 Mhz in 900 Mhz and 5 Mhz in 2100 Mhz, and Vodafone having 5 Mhz in 2100 Mhz.
As for the 4G bandwidth, Airtel has 3 Mhz in 900 Mhz, 5 Mhz in 1800 Mhz, and 20+10 Mhz in 2300 Mhz, while Jio has 5 Mhz in 850 Mhz, 5 Mhz in 1800 Mhz and 20+10 Mhz in 2300 Mhz, while Vodafone has 10 Mhz in 1800 Mhz and 20 Mhz in 2500 Mhz.
