Pakistan’s mobile phone imports surged by over 31% during the first seven months (July-January) of fiscal year 2025–26, reaching $1.139 billion compared to $867.685 million in the same period last year, according to official figures.
In local currency terms, mobile imports amounted to Rs321.137 billion during July-January FY2025–26, up 33.07% from Rs241.330 billion recorded a year earlier.
On a month-on-month basis, imports rose 12.60% to $179.380 million in January 2026, compared to $159.304 million in December 2025. On a year-on-year basis, January imports increased 33.62% from $134.243 million in January 2025.
Despite the strong growth this fiscal year, mobile phone imports declined in the previous fiscal year. In FY2024–25, Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $1.494 billion, marking a 21.31% drop from $1.898 billion in FY2023–24.
In rupee terms, mobile imports during FY2024–25 stood at Rs417.351 billion, reflecting a 22.09% decrease compared to Rs535.690 billion in the preceding fiscal year.
Overall telecom imports during FY2024–25 totaled $2.099 billion, down 11.30% from $2.366 billion in FY2023-24.
Meanwhile, domestic production remained strong. Local manufacturing and assembling plants produced 30.21 million mobile handsets during the calendar year January–December 2025, significantly exceeding the 2.37 million units imported commercially during the same period.
In December 2025 alone, 2.61 million handsets were locally manufactured or assembled, compared to 0.33 million units imported.
Of the 30.21 million handsets produced in 2025, 15.64 million were smartphones, while 14.57 million were 2G devices.
Data from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) shows that smartphones account for 71% of devices operating on Pakistan’s network, while 29% are 2G handsets.
