According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), local manufacturing plants in Pakistan have manufactured 2.81 million mobile handsets keeping in view the first 3 months of 2023. The amount of handsets imported commercially within the same time was recorded to be 0.27 million. During March 2023, 0.46 million handsets were assembled as compared to 0.08 million handsets that were imported commercially.
During the year 2022, 21.94 million mobile phones were assembled locally comparing to 24.66 locally manufactured units in 2021, which accounts for a registered decline, said to be caused due to issues in imports. Meanwhile, 1.53 million mobile phones were imported commercially in the year 2022 according to PTA.
The 2.81 million handsets assembled within the first three months of 2023 include 2.2 million 2G and 0.67 million smartphones. Although, according to the data, 56 percent handsets on the Pakistani network are smartphones and 44 percent are 2G mobiles.
An import of 462.701 million dollars worth mobile phones was observed in the country during the first nine months of the current fiscal year, registering a negative growth of 71.07 percent when compared to the same period last year. Whereas, the country’s smartphone imports showed a decline of 55 percent on month on month basis, in March 2023 stood at $ 14.846 million compared to imports of $ 33.054 million in February 2023. A 91.93 percent negative growth was registered on an year on year basis in March 2023 according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
