Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $420.799 million in the first four months (July-October) of the fiscal year 2024-25, marking a 10.46 percent decrease compared to $469.969 million during the same period last fiscal year. In rupee terms, imports amounted to Rs. 117.017 billion, reflecting a 13.62 percent decline from Rs. 135.468 billion in the previous year.

Despite the overall decline, mobile phone imports surged by 69.89 percent on a month-on-month basis in October 2024, reaching $174.338 million, up from $102.618 million in September 2024, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). Year-on-year, imports grew by 5.06 percent compared to $165.941 million in October 2023.

Overall telecom imports for July-October 2024 stood at $609.520 million, showing a slight growth of 0.44 percent from $606.833 million in the same period of 2023. On a month-on-month basis, telecom imports increased by 53.92 percent in October 2024, totaling $235.349 million, compared to $152.905 million in September 2024. Year-on-year, telecom imports rose by 13.27 percent from $207.786 million in October 2023.

Local manufacturing has seen significant growth, with 22.59 million mobile handsets manufactured or assembled in the first nine months (January-September) of 2024, compared to 1.17 million units imported commercially. In September alone, 2.15 million handsets were locally produced, while only 0.07 million were imported.

The locally manufactured handsets included 8.73 million 2G phones and 13.86 million smartphones. According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), 64 percent of mobile devices on the network are smartphones, while 36 percent are 2G devices.