In the first nine months of 2024, local manufacturing and assembling plants in Pakistan produced 22.59 million mobile handsets, significantly outpacing the 1.17 million units imported commercially during the same period.

According to official data, September alone saw the production of 2.15 million locally manufactured or assembled mobile handsets, compared to just 0.07 million imported units.

The locally produced handsets comprised 8.73 million 2G phones and 13.86 million smartphones. Data from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) indicates that 64 percent of mobile devices on the Pakistani network are smartphones, while 36 percent are 2G devices.

In terms of imports, Pakistan brought in mobile phones worth $246.472 million during the first quarter (July-September) of the fiscal year 2024-25. This represents a decline of 18.93 percent compared to the $304.029 million spent on imports during the same period in the previous fiscal year, 2023-24. This shift highlights the growing trend of local manufacturing in the mobile phone industry, reducing reliance on imports.