Pakistan’s mobile phone imports rose sharply during the first five months of the current fiscal year, reaching $801.139 million in July–November FY26, according to official data. This represents an increase of more than 40 percent compared to the same period last year, reflecting stronger consumer demand and improved import capacity.
During the corresponding period of FY25, Pakistan had imported mobile phones worth $570.184 million. In rupee terms, imports climbed to Rs226.133 billion in the first five months of FY26, compared to Rs158.518 billion a year earlier, marking a growth of 42.65 percent.
On a month-on-month basis, mobile phone imports increased by 8.30 percent in November 2025, rising to $156.565 million from $144.563 million in October.
However, on a year-on-year basis, November imports declined by 4.81 percent compared to $149.378 million recorded in November 2024, indicating some short-term volatility.
Despite the recent surge, mobile phone imports had declined in the previous fiscal year. Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $1.494 billion in FY25, down 21.31 percent from $1.898 billion in FY24. In rupee terms, imports declined to Rs 417.351 billion in FY25 from Rs 535.690 billion in the preceding year, reflecting both lower volumes and currency effects.
Overall telecom imports during FY25 totalled $2.099 billion, representing a 11.30 per cent contraction from $2.366 billion in FY24.
Meanwhile, local mobile phone manufacturing and assembling continued to post strong results. During the first ten months of calendar year 2025, local plants produced or assembled 25.11 million handsets, while only 1.7 million units were imported commercially. In October alone, 2.33 million mobile phones were locally manufactured or assembled, compared to just 0.2 million imported devices.
Of the locally produced handsets, 13.2 million were smartphones and 11.9 million were 2G phones. Data from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority shows that around 70 percent of mobile devices currently active on local networks are smartphones, while 30 percent are 2G phones.
