ISLAMABAD: The country has witnessed 7.9 per cent increase in mobile phone imports, which reached $375.063 million during first half (July-December) of current fiscal year over $347.564 million of last year’s same period.
According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), overall telecom imports saw significant decline of 7.43 percent during July-December 2015-16 compared to the same period in last year and total imports were recorded at US$ 695.334 million compared to $751.124 million in same period last year.
Other telecom apparatus import also witnessed significant decline of 20.64 percent during this period as it stood at $320.271 million during July-December (2015-16) against $403.56 million during same period of last year.
The telecom experts on Sunday emphasized the need to ensure more facilities in the area and connectivity coverage may be expanded to under-served and un-served areas of the country. Meanwhile, mobile phone users in Pakistan have reached 124.24 million at the end of November 2015, after five mobile phone companies added a combined user base of 1.64 million customers during the reported month.
Mobilink leads the charts with 35.67 million customers while Telenor is closing in the gap with 34.24 million subscribers. Zong has 24.05 million customers at the end of Nov 2015 while Ufone stood with 19.66 million customers till the time.
