Pakistan Mobile Phone Imports Jump Over 40 Percent

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s mobile phone imports surged to $801.139 million during the first five months of the current fiscal year, FY26, recording a growth of over 40 percent compared to the same period last year, according to official data.

During July to November FY26, mobile phone imports increased from $570.184 million last year to $801.139 million. In rupee terms, the value of imports rose to Rs. 226.133 billion, compared to Rs. 158.518 billion in the corresponding period, showing a growth of 42.65 percent.

On a month-on-month basis, mobile phone imports increased by 8.30 percent in November 2025 to $156.565 million, compared to $144.563 million in October. However, on a year-on-year basis, imports in November declined by 4.81 percent compared to $149.378 million in November 2024.

Despite the recent rise, 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, mobile phone imports stood at Rs. 417.351 billion in FY25, reflecting a decline of 22.09 percent compared to Rs. 535.690 billion in FY24.

Overall telecom imports during FY25 were recorded at $2.099 billion, showing a negative growth of 11.30 percent compared to $2.366 billion in the previous year.

Read more: Mobile Phones likely to get more expensive in 2026, Here’s why

Meanwhile, local mobile manufacturing and assembling continued to show strong performance. During the first ten months of calendar year 2025, local plants manufactured or assembled 25.11 million mobile handsets, compared to only 1.7 million imported commercially.

In October 2025 alone, 2.33 million mobile phones were locally manufactured or assembled, while only 0.2 million handsets were imported.

The locally produced handsets included 13.2 million smartphones and 11.9 million 2G phones. According to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority data, around 70 percent of mobile devices currently active on the network are smartphones, while 30 percent are 2G phones.