Pakistan’s mobile phone industry is positioning itself to take advantage of the expected mid-year launch of 5G services, with local manufacturers preparing new devices while continuing production of affordable 4G phones to avoid losing price-sensitive customers.
The country now has more than 30 assembly units producing about 30 million handsets a year, giving it the manufacturing base to shift toward next-generation technology.
Most major brands are technically ready for 5G, but actual growth will depend on how quickly spectrum is allocated, networks are rolled out and whether consumers can afford 5G devices, Zeeshan Mianoor, Chief Executive Officer of Inovi Telecom told wealth Pakistan, as reported by APP.
Many phones already being assembled in Pakistan support 5G bands, but they are mostly in higher price brackets starting around Rs75,000.
As a result, adoption is expected to begin slowly in large cities such as Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad before spreading more widely once people see clear improvements in speed and performance and cheaper models become available.
He further stressed that 5G cannot be activated through software updates alone because it requires specialised hardware. For this reason, companies plan to introduce new 5G models while keeping 4G options in the market, adjusting production based on demand and network expansion.
Meanwhile, Mian Abdul Rehman, Chairman of the Pakistan Mobile Phone Manufacturers Association, indicate that in the early phase only a minority of manufacturers and consumers will benefit, with 5G phones likely making up about one-fifth of total sales at first.
The chairman further added that 5G-enabled smartphones are expected to cost Rs5,000 to Rs15,000 more than existing models, while in some cases the price gap could widen to between Rs20,000 and Rs30,000, potentially slowing mass-market adoption in the short term.
