ICT R&D Fund to Develop Broadband Growth Programme

The National ICT Research and Development (R&D) Fund has planed to develop an ‘Advanced Technology Programme in Broadband Access Technologies’ aimed at supporting the growth of broadband sector through a R&D centered ecosystem at national level.

Sources in the industry said that the national programme will support broadband sector not only for commercial activities but it will also produce kick-start knowledge-based value creation in this sector.

The programme is a collaborative initiative that promotes collaboration and use of best practices around a specific focus area to drive business results.

The institutions will provide free of cost space for the programme while the ICT R&D Fund will provide seed funding for sustaining the programme operations for the first three years including grants for equipment and for some initial R&D projects.

Besides, the individual R&D projects and other activities will be distributed across the programme partners including telecom operators, commercial organizations, academic institutions and others. The utilization of the infrastructure, equipment and facilities under the umbrella of the proposed programme will be open to all industry stakeholders, government agencies, academic institutions and researchers.

The programme is aimed at high economic and social returns within the shortest period of time through increasing utility of broadband services by customer of different walk of lives.

The fund’s board, in this regard, has already identified a number of priority themes including telecom, energy, agriculture and others.

Within the Pakistani telecom sector, the broadband sector has experienced the highest growth during the last few years. In 2010-11 Pakistan recorded 46.2 percent growth in the number of broadband subscribers and was ranked fourth worldwide in this regard. (In comparison Sri Lanka and India were ranked 11th and 14th, respectively).

Currently, the total number of broadband subscribers in Pakistan is estimated around 1.7 million but its sub-sector is expected to exhibit similar growth rates during the next few years.

Presently, there are more than 10 broadband service providers competing in the Pakistani market to get a share of this rapidly growing subscriber base. Various access technologies currently deployed include wireless technologies such as WiMAX and EvDO and wired technologies such as DSL, HFC and FTTH. In terms of technology adoption the Pakistani service providers have been the leaders in the region for quite some time.

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Free Laptops with Costly Giveaway Ceremonies

We appreciated Punjab Government when they first announced the free giveaway of 100,000 laptops to brightest of the students in the province.

We are also proud of Mr. Shahbaz Sharif for many other ventures he has endured lately, particularly for those catering the IT industry.

Having said this, we are yet to ascertain the need of significantly large amount of funds that are being wasted by Punjab Government (or by its departments) for the laptop giveaway ceremonies; which are being held in almost every district of the province.

I do agree that there are so many other things in our country that can be avoided to save money, but these giveaway ceremonies are one of them. We are resource-less country; let’s not waste our hard earn money on such things just to grab some slogans.

I can assure you, if you did well, you will be rewarded without lavish ceremonies and high standing banners.

I am in business myself and I do consider cost in every step I take. I research well before ordering anything, hiring a resource or before selecting any service for my company; that’s because I am a small company with limited resources. I was just wondering, why our rulers can’t think the same way. They are equally poor as I am, then why this disparity in actions?

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Does Anyone Know of TeraData IT Excellence Award Winners?Does Anyone Know of TeraData IT Excellence Award Winners?

TeraData National IT Excellence Awards were held last Sunday (March 18th, 2012), in which 13 Awards were given to the best of the best in the information technology industry; that’s how organizers define them.

We know of few winners, those who told us directly or we got to know about them through sources.

Here’s the list:

• Khuram Mujtaba – Excellence in IT Business Intelligence
• Shahid Arif – Excellence in Software Development
• NetSol Technologies Limited – Excellence in Software Export
• Dr. M. Sadiq Ali Khan – Excellence in Networking
• Aamir Malik, Excellence in IT Media & Publication
• Tariq Malik, CIO of the Year Award

We don’t know of other winners, who they are and what they won. TeraData’s official website wasn’t detailing any of the winners till yesterday. Today there are four winners mentioned on website out of 13 total awarded.

We called the numbers given on the website, but of no luck. In fact when I dialed a cell number mentioned on awards’ website the person told me that he is not associated with Teradata and can’t give me the list. He was probably from KPMG Taseer Hadi & Co., the firm responsible for the audit of awards.

I have been trying Teradata’s phone number, for over a week now; no one responds there but an answering machine.

Public relation email id for Teradata Pakistan mentioned on this pagehttp://www.teradata.com/contact-us/public-relations/ is bouncing back. Probably because Sameera Siddiqui isn’t with the Teradata any more but page was never updated.

At the end, I gave up today and thought of asking you to share the award list, if by any chance you have it.

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PTCL Donates Rs. 2.3 million for the Children of Pakistan Sweet Homes

PTCL has extended an assistance of Rs. 2.3 million to demonstrate its support for the recently concluded event specially organized for the children of Pakistan Sweet Homes.

A project of PBM, the nationwide established Sweet Homes provide quality housing and education to nearly 3000 orphaned children across Pakistan.

“As a socially responsible corporate entity, PTCL has always endeavored to stand on the frontlines of social service for the people of Pakistan, whether they are vulnerable groups or affectees of natural disasters,” said Mr. Hussain on the occasion of the Annual Sports Gala celebrated by the children of Pakistan Sweet Homes to mark Pakistan Day on March 23^rd.

Held in Jinnah Sports Complex, Islamabad from March 19-25, the Sports Gala was actively participated in by children who were provided an exciting opportunity for fun, games and sports gear through partnership between PBM and PTCL.

The colorful ceremony held at Jinnah Sports Complex, Islamabad was attended by Speaker National Assembly, Dr. Fehmida Mirza; President Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Sardar Yaqoob Khan; Minister of Kashmir Affairs & Northern Areas, Mian Manzoor Watoo; Managing Director, Pakistan Bait-ul- Maal (PBM), Zamarrud Khan, and hundreds of dignitaries and people from various sections of society.

“PTCL takes great pleasure in celebrating this significant occasion with these beautiful and talented children of Pakistan Sweet Homes from all over Pakistan who have made this event vibrant and colorful,” said Mr. Mazhar Hussain. “What better day than today for PTCL to be with all of you and reflect the true spirit of Pakistanis as a united nation!”

Speaking on the occasion, MD PBM, Zamarud Khan especially thanked PTCL for its generous gift for the children of Sweet Homes. He also thanked PTCL Senior Executive Vice President HR, Syed Mazhar Hussain for attending the ceremony and encouraging the children.

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Naeem Zamindar Included in World Wimax Forum BoD

The WiMAX Forum has announced the addition of five new members to its Board of Directors:

• Tom Mueller, General Manager, Digital Energy – Communications, General Electric
• Shoichi Hanatani, General Manager, Hitachi
• Scott Morrison, Executive Vice President and President, Telecom Infrastructure Business Unit, NewNet Communication Technologies
• Naeem Zamindar, CEO, Wateen Telecom
• Ali Tabassi, COO, YTL Communications

All five companies are worldwide leaders in the development and deployment of next generation wireless technology.

"The WiMAX Forum would like to welcome the newest members of its esteemed Board of Directors,” said Mohammad Shakouri, Chairperson of the WiMAX Forum Board of Directors. “Each of my new colleagues brings a wealth of experience to their roles, and the WiMAX Forum is fortunate to now have access to their guidance and leadership.”

“WiMAX provides a cost effective and scalable solution to the opportunity presented by a developing country like Pakistan where broadband penetration is less than 7% of households and demand is growing exponentially,” said Nameen Zamindar, CEO of Wateen Telecom.

“Our focus is on developing a complete business model focused on providing affordable plug and play fixed broadband access and WiFi enabled hotspots to meet this growing demand. We are pleased to bring our experience and drive for success to help lead the WiMAX industry” he added.

Other members of the WiMAX Forum Board of Directors include: Airspan Networks, Alvarion, Clearwire Corporation, Huawei Technologies, Information and Communications Research Laboratories at Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Intel Corporation, KDDI, KT, Packet One Networks, Samsung, Sprint, and UQ Communications.

The WiMAX Forum also announced the election of Dr. Mohammad Shakouri as Chairperson of the Board of Directors.

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DG Khan Cement Deploys Oracle E-Business Suite

DG Khan Cement Company Limited (DGKCC), one of the largest cement-manufacturers  in Pakistan, has announced the deployment of Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 to help improve its operational efficiency, enabling it to automate its management and financial accounting system, reducing the time it needed to compile monthly operating results from 15 days to just three days.

“The unique and competitive value that Oracle has provided us in shape of smooth and integrated Procure-to-pay and Order-to-Cash business flows has facilitated us to get various types of real time information rapidly rather online, which saves a lot of time and money,” said Muhammad Aslam, Chief Information Officer, DG Khan Cement Co. Ltd. “Integrated information provided by the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 helps us to make better decisions about purchasing and inventory to run business efficiently.”

“Oracle E-Business Suite has a strong footprint in the manufacturing industry and we are delighted that DGKCC has leveraged the most comprehensive suite of integrated, global business applications to further improve their operational efficiency and transform its business with the support of our partners.” said Akkasha Sultan Shaikh, Country Manager, Applications Business, Oracle Pakistan and South Asia Growth Economies – West. “The business benefits being enjoyed by DGKCC is a good example for other key players not only in cement industry but also in other manufacturing industries to follow.”

Prior to the deployment of the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12, the company was using standalone legacy systems for financials, payroll,inventory and sales which were neither automated nor integrated. As a result, reports were being prepared manually at the end of month using manual vouchers.

With the help of Oracle Applications, DGKCC has now been able to generate daily cement production and power generation reports automatically at midnight as the system consolidates the production data, dispatches and inventory balances.

Oracle Purchasing enabled DGKCC to increase its efficiency of purchasing activities by helping to enable the company to process more than twice the purchase requests in the same amount of time as compared to its legacy system.

Implemented in house by the DGKCC ERP team, Oracle Daily Business Intelligence and Oracle Business Intelligence Applications are assisting the organization in generating various management reports efficiently in minimum time and gain more insight and greater value from a range of data sources and applications. Some of these reports have been put online and are being updated automatically after predetermined intervals.

DGKCC has also implemented Oracle Order Management, Oracle Inventory Management, Oracle Enterprise Asset Management and Oracle Discoverer which assist the management in quick and informed decision-making.

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Sybrid’s Contact Center Go Online

Lakson Group subsidiary Sybrid (Pvt.) Ltd., a Business Process Outsourcing company, has completed a state-of-the-art contact center which it will manage for Telenor Pakistan.

The new center – which will create jobs for 500 talented Pakistani individuals – will allow for process handling to meet growing customer needs.

The collaboration has led to an investment of Rs. 100 million by Lakson Group to build the supporting infrastructure.

To mark the completion, an inauguration ceremony was held which was attended by senior officials of Lakson Group, Sybrid and Telenor Pakistan.

Iqbal Ali Lakhani, Chairman, Lakson Group and CEO Sybrid speaking at the inauguration said: “We are proud to have completed the project well before the stipulated deadline. This is the first step Sybrid has taken to providing Telenor Pakistan a holistic customer services package, and we look forward to allowing them to enjoy sustained cost and efficiency advantages through this partnership.”

Lars Christian Iuel, CEO Telenor Pakistan in his comments said: “Telenor Pakistan is committed to building a stronger customer-centric organization. Our partnership with Sybrid is a step in that direction and we hope our customers will benefit from Sybrid’s expertise in customer handling. In addition, we are excited to offer Lakson Group the Easypaisa platform to enable them to disburse salaries of their workers efficiently. The partnership is an excellent example of mutually beneficial synergies created by both organizations.”

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ICT R&D Fund to Develop Broadband Growth Programme

The National ICT Research and Development (R&D) Fund has planed to develop an ‘Advanced Technology Programme in Broadband Access Technologies’ aimed at supporting the growth of broadband sector through a R&D centered ecosystem at national level.

Sources in the industry said that the national programme will support broadband sector not only for commercial activities but it will also produce kick-start knowledge-based value creation in this sector.

The programme is a collaborative initiative that promotes collaboration and use of best practices around a specific focus area to drive business results.

The institutions will provide free of cost space for the programme while the ICT R&D Fund will provide seed funding for sustaining the programme operations for the first three years including grants for equipment and for some initial R&D projects.

Besides, the individual R&D projects and other activities will be distributed across the programme partners including telecom operators, commercial organizations, academic institutions and others. The utilization of the infrastructure, equipment and facilities under the umbrella of the proposed programme will be open to all industry stakeholders, government agencies, academic institutions and researchers.

The programme is aimed at high economic and social returns within the shortest period of time through increasing utility of broadband services by customer of different walk of lives.

The fund’s board, in this regard, has already identified a number of priority themes including telecom, energy, agriculture and others.

Within the Pakistani telecom sector, the broadband sector has experienced the highest growth during the last few years. In 2010-11 Pakistan recorded 46.2 percent growth in the number of broadband subscribers and was ranked fourth worldwide in this regard. (In comparison Sri Lanka and India were ranked 11th and 14th, respectively).

Currently, the total number of broadband subscribers in Pakistan is estimated around 1.7 million but its sub-sector is expected to exhibit similar growth rates during the next few years.

Presently, there are more than 10 broadband service providers competing in the Pakistani market to get a share of this rapidly growing subscriber base. Various access technologies currently deployed include wireless technologies such as WiMAX and EvDO and wired technologies such as DSL, HFC and FTTH. In terms of technology adoption the Pakistani service providers have been the leaders in the region for quite some time.

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Pakistan Exports Talent: Nokia Top Brass Promoted to Regional Heads

Pakistan is considered as highly potential country for its talented human resource; this is particularly valid for telecom sector.

This is also evident from the fact that top level professionals at Nokia Pakistan were recently promoted and shifted to different key level positions in various regions.

Haseeb Ihtisham, Marketing Head of Nokia Pakistan has been promoted to region’s head to look after company’ business in four countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq.

Reza Burney, Head of Care at Nokia Pakistan has been designated as Head of Care Near East Region with countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran and Iraq.

Shoaib Kadri has been elevated to Business Controllers Nokia for Near East Region, who also served Nokia in Pakistan under the same capacity.

All these officials were previously working in Pakistan but they were also looking after commercial affairs of Afghanistan through distribution channels.

Arif Shafique, was elevated to the position of Country Manager Pakistan Afghanistan earlier this year, after Khalid Alvi left regional charge of Nokia for personal reasons.

Shafique is also a local talent and has been promoted as head of the organization for his successful performance at Nokia in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Besides, Imran Khalid, who was transferred to Saudi Arabia from Pakistan as Country Manger in June 2011, has also been promoted. He is now Vice President of Near East Region.

Overall, the key officials of Nokia Pakistan and Afghanistan have been recognized as professionally sound and unmatchable in the entire region.

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Ufone Introduces Huawei Horizon in Pakistan

We know it well that Ufone has got this special taste for introducing mid-range Android phones in Pakistan.

Previously they did it with 3 low to middle end android phones and now they have once again introduced Huawei Horizon (which is actually Huawei Honor) in Pakistan with a price tag of Rs. 28,999 only.

We had been hearing about Huawei showing interest in Pakistani market for its android devices, however, it has again decided to partner with a telco for a launch, i.e. Ufone, for one of its high-end android smartphone. And it comes network locked.

Specifications suggest that Huawei Horizon is powered by a 1.4 GHz processor, cloud services and 1900 mAH battery. Additionally it is equipped with sharp 4 inches LCD and 8 mega pixels camera.

Check below for complete specifications:

• CPU
• 1.4GHz Snapdragon; Adreno 205 GPU; Qualcomm MSM 8255Т chipset;
• RAM:
• 512MB
• Storage:
• 1GB storage,
• microSD card support (up to 32GB)
• Display:
• 4.0” LCD display of FWVGA (854 x 480) resolution;
• 245ppi pixel density
• Camera:
• 8 megapixel auto-focus camera with geotagging and HDR; HD (720p@30fps) video recording, LED flas
• Front-facing VGA camera
• OS:
• Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread with custom Huawei launcher
• Connectivity:
• Wi-Fi b/g/n; hot-spot and DLNA connectivity
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
• GPS with A-GPS; Digital compass
• Accelerometer, Gyroscope and proximity sensor
• Stereo FM radio
• Active noise cancellation with secondary mic
• Office document viewer
• 1900 mAh Li-Po battery
• Standby: Up to 380 h
• Talk time: Up to 6 h 40 min
• Network Locked: Yes, on Ufone
• Price: Rs. 28,999
• Standard 12 months warranty will be provided by Huawei

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Warid Karachi Offer

Karachi Offer

A new offer for residents of Karachi City in which they can make free calls to all Warid numbers.   Subscribers can make free calls to all Warid numbers from Karachi to all over Pakistan from 12am till 12pm.   There is a daily rental to this offer. Charges of rental are 3.99+tax per day and it will be automatically renewed.   Customer will be charged on-net and off-net call as per package plan from 12pm till 12am.   To activate Karachi offer, write “KHI”, or “Karachi” and SMS to 4337.   In case of low balance, Karachi offer will be deactivated and it has to be subscribed again.   SMS will be charged as per the package plan.   To get benefited from free calls, subscriber has to be in Karachi City. Any customer who subscribes to the offer from outside Karachi would be charged 3.99+ tax but will not be able to avail free calls.   Karachi offer can be subscribed both by existing and new subscribers.   Terms and Conditions This is a limited time offer & only for Prepaid subscribers.   Karachi offer is applicable for Warid to Warid calls only.   Offer expires at midnight 12am.   All charges include government taxes and levies as well as a 19.5% federal excise duty.   Each recharge done through scratch cards and Warid Ezeeload includes 10% withholding tax.   Using SIMs without proper documentation is a crime – PTA

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Ufone rewards the Kisan

For the first time in Pakistan…Ufone introduces a package for hard-working farmers. After all, U are the ones who harvest this fertile land of ours. This rich soil would not be the same without your efforts. And in recognition of your contribution to our economy, we are launching Kisan Package – our way of saying Thank U.

With more incentives than ever before, U can now make calls to all networks for just Rs. 1 per minute from 4:00 am – 12:00 pm

Kisan Package:   Ufone to all networks (Rs 1/minute) (4am to 12pm) Ufone to all networks (Rs 1.30/minute) (12pm to 4am)   SMS (Ufone to Ufone) (Re 1.00)   SMS (Ufone to other networks) (Re 1.00)

To subscribe to Kisan Package, simply dial *50# or buy a new Ufone sim.

With Ufone Kisan package – ab hogi khushaali!

Terms & Conditions:

Call charges from 12:00 pm – 4:00 am will be Rs. 1.30 + tax per minute to any network For details on conversion charges from your existing package to Kisan Package, click here. 19.5% FED on usage and 10% withholding tax at recharge or bill applies Terms and condition apply Using SIMs without proper documentation is a crime – PTA

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News Updates ( Sunday 25 March 2012)

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Aadmi (1993)

Dil Tere Naam Se - Kumar Sanu, Kavita

Jaan Se Bhadkar - Kumar Sanu, Sadhana

Main Aashiq Hoon - Jolly Mukherjee, Kavita

Dingora Dingora - Kavita Krishnamurty, Chorus

Dhak Dhak Dil Mera - Kumar Sanu, Kavita

I One Love Four You Three - Mohd Aziz, Udit Narayan, Sujat

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Aag (1948)

Raat Ko Ji - Mukesh, Shamshad Begum

Kahe Koyal Shor Machaye - Shamshad Begum

Zinda Hoon Is Tarah - Mukesh

Dekh Chand Ki Or - Shailesh, Shamshad Begum

Na Aankhon Mein

Dil Toot Gaya Ji

Solah Baras Ki

Kahe Koyal (Revival)

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How Much Money Can You Make on YouTube?

It would be hard to find a person who never wondered how much money you can make by uploading videos to YouTube, especially if one of your videos go viral. That’s exactly what happened with the video below where little Charlie bites the finger of his brother:

The video is now the 6th most viewed all time, with close to 430 million views. If you exclude commercial videos this is the most viewed one. And how much money did the parents make by uploading it?

They didn’t reveal the exact number, but they said it was more than $150,000. Not bad for 57 seconds and a camera huh?

Here’s a quote from an article that appeared on the Daily Mail:

Now, like a growing number of other British families, Howard, 42, and his wife, Shelley, 40, are earning thousands of pounds from this and other Harry and Charlie videos — Charlie On The Scooter He Got For Christmas; The Accident, which features Charlie eating at the kitchen table, dropping a piece of food and biting his own finger instead; and Try Again, which shows their baby brother Jasper learning to walk by pushing a toy along the floor — in what is fast becoming a successful money-making trend.

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How To Make Money on YouTube

A couple of days ago I wrote a post talking about some British parents who published a 57-second video of their children on YouTube and ended up making over $150,000 from that video alone.

Most people who left a comment wanted to get more information on how to make money on YouTube, so I decided to write a follow-up post about it.

In a nutshell you make money on YouTube by becoming a YouTube partner, which allows you to display ads on your videos, and then you earn a percentage of the revenues generated by clicks on those ads, much like with AdSense. As for how much money you can actually make, I heard numbers anywhere from $3 up to $10 per 1,000 video views.

However, the process of becoming a YouTube partner is not as trivial as becoming an AdSense publisher. Below you’ll find the basic steps you need to go through:

1. Make Sure You Have an AdSense Account

While the process to be able to display ads on your YouTube videos is a separate one, your earnings and stats will go together with your AdSense account, so you need to have one.

In theory you could apply to become a YouTube partner before having an AdSense account, and in case you get accepted you would then follow up with an AdSense application. I believe the other way around is much simpler, though.

2. Grow Your Audience on YouTube

One of the most important criteria the YouTube guys will use to evaluate your application is the audience you reach on YouTube. They don’t reveal what are the requirements, but I’ve seen many people say these are the ballpark numbers you need to have before getting accepted:

• at least 1,000 subscribers
• at least 1,000 views on all your videos
• at least 10,000 channel views

These are the very minimum though, if you want to make sure you’ll get accepted I would aim for 5,000 subscribers, 50,000 channel views and over 1,000,000 upload views total.

3. Get Videos Out There Regularly

If you only have one or two videos uploaded your chances of getting accepted are low, even if those videos went viral. That’s because YouTube is looking for people who are planning to work with them over the long term.

The more regularly and frequently you upload new videos, the better. For instance, someone who uploads a new video every day will have a better chance of getting accepted than someone who uploads one every couple of weeks.

You also want to make sure you have at least 100 uploaded videos before applying to become a partner (though some people say 50 will be enough).

4. Develop A Brand Around Your Videos

This step is not essential, but I think it helps a lot on getting approve. You need to remember that, once you meet the technical guidelines, it will be a person on the other site deciding on whether you are a good fit for becoming a YouTube Partner or not. In other words, the more professional you look the higher your chances.

Practical tips include:

• Create a website to host your videos and give your audience more wayts to interact
• Create a nice logo and use it everywhere
• Use a watermark on your videos with your logo
• Consider getting a professional intro made for your videos
• Customize your YouTube channel to make it look professional

5. Make Sure Your Content Has Zero Copyrighted Material

If there’s one thing that will get your application rejected on the spot is copyright infringement, so make sure you have zero copyrighted material on your videos.

This includes images, graphics, logos, video clips and audio. For instance, even just using a music on the background which you don’t have permission to could get your application rejected.

6. Apply to Become a YouTube Partner

After you followed all the previous steps you are ready to apply. You can do that via the official YouTube Partner Program page. It might take a while to get your application considered due to the load of people applying, but once you get accepted you’ll be able to start displaying ads on your videos right away.

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