All illegally imported mobile phones in Pakistan to stop working by year end

ISLAMABAD: The government has devised a system to block all illegally imported mobile phones by the end of this year, said Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry.

Addressing a media briefing here, he said the government had prepared a mechanism that will help halt smuggling of cellphones.

According to a report released in Sep this year, the number of cellular subscribers in Pakistan has reached 151 million by the end of July 2018, indicating an upward trend with each passing month.

The Telecom sector is one of the fastest growing segments of Pakistan’s economy as The Telecom industry has seen a dramatic increase in mobile broadband as well, as penetration over the past five years as mobile broadband subscribers reach 57.32 billion with teledensity of 27.73 on the other hand Basic Telephony subscriber 3 million with 1.30 percent Teledensity.

Mobile broadband users remain significantly higher than fixed broadband user to the dominance of the mobile platform in the country.

The statistics issued by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) have showed that number of mobile phone users reached 151 million by July 2018, as compared to 145.99 million by end of January 2018.

The official of the Ministry, speaking with the state-run wire service recently, said 4G network rollouts continue across the country, By 2017 over 30 percent of Pakistan population was covered by a 4G network.

Pakistan has seen a dramatic increase in mobile broadband penetration over the past five years with market penetration increasing from below one percent in 2012 to 24 percent in 2017, he added.