Smartphone instalments in Pakistan wait on one rule, and it does not touch the down payment
Four operators have asked the PTA for a framework that ends in SIM blocking for persistent defaulters. The magazine's sums show the larger barrier to financed phones is the advance, not the monthly payment.
The hard part of buying a smartphone on instalments in Pakistan is the first payment, not the monthly one, and the rule the mobile operators want for defaulters does nothing about it. A Jazz and Kistpay offer listed in February 2024 shows the shape. A Samsung Galaxy A04 with 4GB of memory needed Rs11,183 up front and Rs2,692 a month for 12 months. Set against the Rs40,700 monthly minimum wage notified for Islamabad from 1 July 2026, the instalment is 6.6 percent of a month's pay. The advance is 27.5 percent. The first month, advance plus first instalment, takes Rs13,875, or 34.1 percent. The offer is old and prices have moved, so these percentages show the structure and are not a current quote.
What the operators asked for is something else. In a joint letter to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority dated 7 May 2026, Jazz, PTCL and Ufone, Telenor and Zong asked for a framework to support device financing and to handle repayment defaults. Their proposal is a ladder. First come payment reminders, advance notice and a chance to clear what is overdue. Next come restrictions on the financed handset. Blocking the customer's SIM comes last, only for persistent default, with consent and consumer protections. They also proposed reviewing the framework after one year. The letter is not public, and industry sources say the framework is still under discussion.
A policy stuck for three years
The idea is not new. The IT ministry drafted a mobile phone financing policy in November 2023. The federal cabinet sent it back for vetting by the law ministry. In April 2024 the ministry wrote to the PTA, asking it to use the Device Identification Registration and Blocking System, DIRBS, which already blocks unregistered phones, against defaulters, and said no new policy directive was needed. By March 2025 the operators were split: some backed blocking defaulters' SIM cards, others opposed a central system that would block every SIM registered to a defaulter's identity card number. Counting from the first draft, the policy has now gone three years without a final rule.
What blocking actually does
DIRBS works on the handset's IMEI, the serial number every phone broadcasts. A blocked IMEI cannot register on any network, whatever SIM is inside. That is repossession by other means: the lender cannot take the phone back, but it can make the phone useless, which carries the same threat. A SIM block is a different instrument. It cuts the borrower's number and not the device, and the phone still works on wifi. In a country where the number is the key to mobile wallets and one time passcodes from banks, losing it can lock a person out of money that has nothing to do with the loan. That is why the operators' ladder puts the handset restriction before the SIM and asks for safeguards.
The split among operators follows from the mechanics. A SIM block cuts the operator's own revenue and its customer relationship, while an IMEI block through DIRBS moves enforcement onto the regulator. A block tied to an identity card number would reach every connection a person holds, which is why it draws the sharpest objection.
The advance is the barrier
Back to the sums. Over 12 months the Galaxy A04 buyer pays Rs11,183 plus 12 instalments of Rs2,692, which is Rs32,304, so Rs43,487 in all. The advance is 25.7 percent of that total. A default rule protects the lender against the later 74 percent. It does nothing for the household that can pay Rs2,692 a month but cannot find Rs11,183 at once.
The wider numbers show how much room there is. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics household survey for 2024 and 2025 found that 50 percent of people aged 10 and over own a mobile phone. A GSMA report from August 2025 put mobile broadband coverage at 81 percent of the population but use of mobile internet at 29 percent in 2024. That is 52 points of the population living under a signal and not using it. Affordability, digital skills and trust are the barriers the report names.
Lenders face a second problem, which is information. Many buyers, including informal and daily wage workers, have no payslip and no credit file, so a lender cannot judge whether they can repay. The State Bank of Pakistan's draft Open Banking Regulations, released for public comment on 30 October 2026, would let customers consent to share their financial data. A lender could then read a wallet history instead of a salary slip. The effect depends on the final rules and on which institutions take part.
Who gains and who loses
Operators and handset lenders gain a lawful way to recover money, which should lower the price of risk. Borrowers with thin records gain only if open banking lets them prove income. The group that gains least is the one the 27.5 percent advance shuts out, and no proposal on the table lowers the advance. Consumers lose if the final rule lets a missed payment cut off the number that carries their wallet.
No date has been set for a decision. The first dated step to watch is the close of the State Bank's consultation on the open banking draft, and then whether the PTA is told to run the operators' ladder through DIRBS or through SIM blocks.
