Photo: Gitartha.bordoloi · CC BY-SA 4.0
A train passenger can have a fast internet connection at one moment and struggle to finish a call at another. A telecom assessment published on 9 November 2026 puts numbers to that distinction along the New Tinsukia–Guwahati railway route, with tickets, train information and passenger complaints available on a phone.
In the test, 65 of 205 calls successfully connected on BSNL’s network subsequently dropped. Vodafone Idea recorded 34 drops in 164 connected calls, Reliance Jio nine in 175 and Airtel five in 166. These are results from a particular test, not predictions of what every passenger will experience.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India released the findings on 9 November 2026. Its appointed agency carried out the measurements on 11 September 2026, covering 515.9 kilometres of railway and two station hotspots. These September measurements are a dated snapshot, not a live reading of the route.
The fastest download network was not the leader on every measure. Jio averaged 110.82 megabits per second for downloads, compared with Airtel’s 42.71, Vodafone Idea’s 15.69 and BSNL’s 5.00. Airtel led the upload comparison at 11.75 Mbps, ahead of Jio’s 8.29. For the data-speed tests, Airtel and Jio used 5G/4G, while BSNL and Vodafone Idea used 4G/2G.
Those distinctions matter. Download speed describes how quickly data arrives; it does not, by itself, establish that a voice call will stay connected or that coverage will remain available throughout a journey. The News Mill’s report on the audit also highlighted poor-signal samples, which formed about 48.6% of BSNL’s voice-test samples and 46.7% of Vodafone Idea’s. These are shares of recorded samples, not percentages of railway distance or passengers.
The connection to everyday rail travel is increasingly direct. In a parliamentary reply published on 12 August 2026, the Railway Ministry said roughly 89% of reserved tickets were booked online. RailOne brings ticketing, train and PNR enquiries and RailMadad onto one platform. As of 2 August 2026, the ministry reported 4.76 crore downloads and about 10 lakh average daily ticket bookings. Those are dated national figures, not usage estimates for this Assam route.
Digital ticketing nevertheless does not mean every ticket must be fetched afresh from the internet at inspection. IRCTC’s reserved e-ticket terms recognise its electronic reservation slip, virtual reservation message or an SMS sent by IRCTC, together with the required identity proof and reservation-chart entry. Keeping the valid ticket accessible before travelling is different from relying on a last-minute online lookup.
Unreserved mobile tickets have a separate rule. Reporting a railway clarification on 31 August 2026, The Indian Express said a RailOne unreserved ticket must be presented on the registered phone used to book it. A screenshot forwarded from another person’s phone is not valid travel authority. Passengers should not assume the reserved e-ticket rules apply to every mobile ticket.
The audit did not test ticket purchases, payment failures or the RailOne app. It therefore cannot establish that any passenger lost a booking because of these network results. Nor does one day’s test rank networks across India. In its 9 November 2026 release, TRAI said it had shared the findings with the operators for action. For passengers on this route, the report’s useful distinction is between a quick download and a connection that stays usable when it is needed.
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