Pakistan's local mobile phone production overshoots imports

On Thursday, according to the data released by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority showed that the country manufactured 12.27 million mobile phones compared to the imports of 8.29m sets during the first seven months of 2021.

However, 2G compatible sets continue to dominate local manufacturing compared to smartphones production in the country.

Out of the 12.27m mobile phones locally manufactured between January and July, only 4.87m were 4G compatible smartphones, whereas the bulk of 7.4m mobile phones sets were 2G technology.

Responding to a query, a manufacturer said the trend was changing and the ratio between the smartphones and old 2G technology-based sets will narrow in the coming months. “In the year 2020, only 2.06m smartphones were manufactured in Pakistan against 10.98m 2G sets. This year, almost 5m smartphones have already been rolled out and the gap with 2G sets is not too wide.