During the first seven months (July-January) of the fiscal year 2023-24, Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $987.539 million, showing a substantial growth of 138.08 percent compared to the same period last year. The imports saw a monthly increase of 10.70 percent in January 2024, reaching $194.928 million compared to $176.093 million in December 2023.

Also Read: Partial Resumption of Mobile Networks Begins in Pakistan

On a year-on-year basis, mobile phone imports in January 2024 grew by 275.15 percent compared to January 2023. The overall telecom imports in the country during July-January 2023-24 amounted to $1.243 billion, marking a significant 93.06 percent growth compared to the last fiscal year. On a year-on-year basis, the overall telecom imports in January 2024 increased by 197.07 percent, reaching $232.709 million compared to $78.336 million in January 2023.

Despite a decline of around four percent in local manufacturing/assembling of mobile handsets in 2023, commercial imports of mobile phones increased during the same period. Local manufacturing plants produced 21.28 million mobile handsets during 2023, while commercial imports rose from 1.53 million in 2022 to 1.58 million in 2023. The locally manufactured handsets included 13 million 2G and 8.28 million smartphones.