Pakistan assembles 18.66m mobile handsets in 8 months of 2026

ISLAMABAD: The local assembling plants assembled 18.66 million mobile handsets during the first eight months of calendar year 2026 compared to 2.74 million imported commercially.

Official data revealed that Pakistan assembled 134,501, 5G enabled mobile handsets during August 2026, compared to 553,079 during 20025.

The local manufacturing/ assembling plants manufactured/ assembled 30.21 million mobile handsets during the calendar year (January-December) 2025 compared to 2.37 million imported commercially.

The local manufacturing/ assembling plants manufactured/ assembled 18.66 million mobile handsets included 8 million smart phones and 11 million 2G phones.

Besides, as per the PTA data, 71 per cent of mobile devices are smartphones, and 29 per cent are 2G on the Pakistan network.

Pakistan’s mobile phone imports declined 8.85 percent during the first two months of the current fiscal year (July-August), falling to $274.129 million from $300.741 million in the corresponding period of last fiscal year, according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

In rupee terms, mobile phone imports decreased 10.53 percent to Rs76.267 billion during July-August 2026, compared to Rs85.245 billion during the same period of 2025.

On a year-on-year basis, mobile phone imports also registered a decline of 13.82 percent in August 2026, falling to $133.695 million from $155.129 million in August 2025.

On a month-on-month basis, imports of mobile phones declined 4.80 percent in August 2026 compared to $140.434 million in July 2026.

In contrast, Pakistan’s demand for telecom infrastructure remained relatively strong during the period under review, with imports of telecom equipment increasing 8.95 percent to $432.044 million during July-August 2026, compared to $395.536 million in the corresponding period of last year.

In rupee terms, telecom equipment imports rose 6.95 percent to Rs120.211 billion during the first two months of the current fiscal year, compared to Rs112.398 billion during the same period of last year.

The increase in telecom equipment imports comes amid continued investment in the country’s telecom infrastructure, including network expansion and preparations for the rollout of next-generation mobile services.

However, on a year-on-year basis, telecom equipment imports declined 3.42 percent to $197.269 million in August 2026 from $204.263 million in August 2025.

On a month-on-month basis, telecom equipment imports fell 15.98 percent in August 2026 compared to $234.775 million in July 2026.