For decades, live field tests have been the go-to method to assess network performance.
But even when upgrades work exactly as specifications suggest, this method still falls short today. Network complexity has skyrocketed, and significantly more variables are in play.
Traditional techniques are why many telcos have experienced poor returns in recent years. Unfortunately, many who experienced disappointing results are now hesitant to do more than put out fires.
Fortunately, today there is a better way: virtual drive tests can now deliver accurate, actionable analysis. Virtual testing can quickly uncover meaningful data. With it, teams can quickly scale and optimize, even in the most complex environments.
First, let's examine why traditional and legacy methods of field testing are no longer viable. We'll then discuss why virtual drive tests are a necessity for operators moving forward.
The Legacy Approach: What Drive Tests Actually Do
Traditional drive tests involve placing monitoring equipment in a vehicle (or drone) and capturing key performance indicators (KPIs) while moving through a predefined route. These metrics typically include:
- RSRP and RSRQ for signal strength and quality
- SINR and CQI for interference and channel conditions
- Call setup success rate, drop rate, and voice quality
- GPS-tagged logs for visualizing coverage across geographies
While these methods once served as a practical standard, they now present major limitations:
- Expensive and slow. Each drive test requires specialized hardware, skilled personnel, and hours of route planning and execution. Scaling to regional or national coverage becomes cost-prohibitive.
- Poor scalability. Drive tests provide limited data points, covering only where the car has been. Major blind spots persist, as this can't identify where customers are actually experiencing issues.
- Only a snapshot in time. Network conditions shift rapidly. A test conducted at 10 AM may tell a different story than one at 3 PM. A problem at 9 AM on Tuesday, may not be a problem at 9 AM on Thursday.
- No connection to real user experience. Drive tests don’t capture the voice or behavior of real subscribers. They operate in isolation from customer complaints, call traces, and BSS data.
In short, traditional testing is labor-intensive and increasingly disconnected from meaningful network occurrences.
Virtual Drive Testing: What’s Changed
Drive tests used to be the only way to understand what was happening on the ground.
But today’s networks already generate more than enough data for highly effective virtual testing. And thanks to modern AI, complex datasets can be parsed rapidly.
Modern virtual drive testing uses real, subscriber-based data sources like:
- Call Traces – Offering detailed insight into session events, device location, and cell transitions
- Crowdsourced Data – Aggregated from apps, devices, and endpoints across the network
- CM/PM Counters – Capturing performance metrics like throughput, latency, and handover success
By enriching inputs with AI and GEO algorithms, location-aware diagnostics become a reality. This means virtual analysis can achieve a comprehensive analysis without ever sending a vehicle into the field.
Key techniques include:
- Trilateration and fingerprinting to estimate device-level location accuracy
- AI-driven segmentation to cluster and analyze user behavior across locations and time
- Continuous monitoring instead of one-time snapshots, issues are caught as they emerge
With no vehicles, delays, or blind spots, virtual testing provides a better foundation for network operations.
Real Results: How A Spanish Tier 1 Telco Did It
A Tier 1 Telco in Spain was facing a major challenge because of increasing voice call drops. Problems were especially pronounced in areas with overshooting cells and insufficient planning.
Dashboard tools did little more than display swathes of disjointed data. Drive tests couldn’t localize issues or reveal the true subscriber experience at scale.
That’s where GEO Analytics changed the game.
Using Kenmei’s virtual drive test solution, the Tier 1 Telco was able to:
- Pinpoint exact drop locations with Call Trace data enriched by location intelligence
- Visualize serving and neighbor cell conditions without ever leaving the office
- Automatically detect root causes like overshooting and misconfigured handovers
- Track improvements week by week, driving continuous performance gains
Investigation time dropped from days to hours. Voice quality improved across key regions. Drive tests became the exception, not the rule.
The engineers were able to prioritize the right areas, understand what was happening, and quickly fix problems.
Virtual Drive Tests Take the Front Seat in Network Analysis
Drive tests aren’t obsolete, but they’re no longer the first tool operators should reach for.
Thanks to modern AI, virtual testing delivers better results through deeper network understanding. It captures the real user experience at scale, continuously, and without the cost of vehicles on the road.
Field tests still matter for some nuanced scenarios. But in 2025, they should be the exception, not the rule.
👉 Download the Brief. See a side-by-side comparison of traditional vs. virtual drive testing, and learn how much your network could save.
