In 2023, local manufacturing facilities in Pakistan would produce 21.28 million mobile handsets

There were about 4% fewer mobile phones manufactured or assembled in the country in 2023. This occurred as a result of opening letters of credit restrictions causing problems with phone components procurement. Official data indicates that despite these limitations, the quantity of cell phones imported from other nations increased.

Less than the 21.94 million in 2022 and the 24.66 million in 2021, local firms produced roughly 21.28 million mobile phones in 2023. However, the amount of imported mobile phones rose from 1.53 million in 2022 to 1.58 million in 2023.

Thirteen million were older 2G phones, and eighty-eight million were smartphones, of the twenty-one million mobile phones manufactured or assembled in the country.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) reports that smartphones account for 59% of all mobile devices used in Pakistan, with older 2G phones making up 41% of the total.

In the first half of 2023–24 fiscal year (July–December), Pakistan imported mobile phones for a total of $792.612 million. Compared to the same period last year, when it was $362.841 million, this is a significant growth of 118.45 percent. The amount spent on mobile phone imports reached $176.093 million in December 2023, up 20.16 percent from November 2023. The amount spent on importing mobile phones in December 2023 was a whopping 143.59 percent higher than in December 2022.

When compared to the same period in the previous year, the total amount spent on importing telecom equipment into the nation climbed by 78.64 percent between July and December of 2023.