Pakistan’s mobile phone imports saw a sharp rise during the first seven months of the current fiscal year, reflecting growing consumer demand and expanding smartphone usage across the country. Official figures show that imports crossed $1.1 billion between July and January, marking a notable increase compared to the same period last year.
According to official data, Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $1.139 billion during July-January of fiscal year 2025-26, compared to $867.685 million in the corresponding period of the previous year. This represents a growth of over 31%. In local currency terms, imports stood at Rs 321.137 billion, up from Rs 241.330 billion, showing an increase of more than 33%.
On a month-on-month basis, mobile phone imports also increased. Imports reached $179.38 million in January 2026, up by 12.6from $159.304 million recorded in December 2025. On a yearly comparison, January imports were 33.62% higher than the $134.243 million recorded in January 2025.
The rise comes after a decline in the previous fiscal year, when Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $1.494 billion in 2024-25. That figure was down by over 21% compared to $1.898 billion in fiscal year 2023-24. In rupee terms, mobile phone imports fell to Rs 417.351 billion last year from Rs 535.690 billion a year earlier.
Overall telecom imports during fiscal year 2024-25 stood at $2.099 billion, reflecting a decline of 11.3% compared to the previous year, indicating broader pressure on telecom-related spending.
Meanwhile, local mobile phone manufacturing and assembly continued to play a significant role. During the calendar year 2025, locally operating plants manufactured or assembled 30.21 million mobile handsets, while only 2.37 million units were imported commercially. In December alone, 2.61 million handsets were locally assembled compared to just 0.33 million imported units.
The locally produced handsets included 15.64 million smartphones and 14.57 million 2G phones. Data from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority shows that smartphones now make up 71% of devices on the country’s mobile network, while 29% are 2G phones.
