ISLAMABAD: The total imports of mobile phones in the country has touched US $ 307.744 million mark during first five months of this fiscal year, showing 8.79 percent increase.
During same period last year (July-November 2015-16), the mobile phones import was US $ 282.875 million, a data issued by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) revealed.
This single digit growth in phone imports is organic and has very little to do with the uptake of newer 3G/4G technologies, indicating that after early adaption of 3G/4G for those who had smartphones already – mobile phone companies might struggle in converting their customers to 3G/4G networks from now onwards.
Experts on Wednesday said after adding a good 20 million 3G/4G users during past 18 months, 2016 is going to challenge mobile phone operators in attracting new 3G/4G users, given that there is a sluggish trend in uptake of smartphones in the country.
While there’s no authentic data available, experts said overall smartphone penetration in Pakistan is around 15-18 %.
Other telecom apparatus imports witnessed significant decline of 25 percent during this period as it stood at $263.287 million during July-November (2015-16) against $352.292 million during the same period in 2014-15.
