Local mobile phone manufacturing in Pakistan continued to expand between January and August 2026, with local assembly plants producing 18.66 million mobile handsets during the period, compared to commercial imports of only 2.74 million units. According to official data, the locally assembled units included about 8 million smartphones and approximately 11 million 2G phones, reflecting a continued reliance on domestic production over imported devices.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority data shows that smartphones now make up 71 percent of all active mobile devices on the local network, with 2G phones holding the remaining 29 percent share. However, 5G handset production saw a sharp year on year decline, with Pakistan assembling 134,501 5G enabled handsets during August 2026, down from 553,079 5G handsets assembled during the same month in 2025. Looking at the full 2025 calendar year, local plants produced 30.21 million handsets in total, compared to just 2.37 million commercial imports over that period.
As local production has grown, mobile phone imports have continued to decline. During the first two months of the current fiscal year, July and August 2026, mobile phone imports fell by 8.85 percent year on year, with the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics reporting total import value dropping to $274.129 million, down from $300.741 million in the same period last year. In Pakistani Rupees, this translates to a 10.53 percent decrease, with import values falling to PKR 76.267 billion during July and August 2026, compared to PKR 85.245 billion in 2025. August 2026 alone saw a 13.82 percent year on year decline, with mobile imports falling to $133.695 million from $155.129 million in August 2025, while month on month imports also slipped by 4.80 percent compared to $140.434 million in July 2026.
Despite the drop in handset imports, demand for telecom infrastructure equipment has remained strong. Imports of telecom equipment increased by 8.95 percent during July and August 2026, reaching $432.044 million, up from $395.536 million in the previous year, or PKR 120.211 billion in Rupee terms, a 6.95 percent rise. This growth is linked to continued investment in Pakistan’s telecom infrastructure, including network expansions and preparations for next generation mobile services. However, August 2026 saw a slight dip in equipment imports on a year on year basis, declining 3.42 percent to $197.269 million, with a steeper 15.98 percent month on month fall from the $234.775 million recorded in July 2026.
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