MAM
MSN, Vodafone to launch PC-to-mobile instant messaging
MUMBAI: MSN and Vodafone are planning to launch a first-of-its-kind seamless instant messaging (IM) service between PCs and mobile phones.
Customers will be able to see the “presence” of their contacts and exchange instant messages between MSN Messenger on a PC and Vodafone Messenger on mobile phones and vice versa.
By offering customers a seamless PC-to-mobile messaging option with instant messaging, MSN and Vodafone will expand communication choices, delivering an enhanced messaging offering for MSN and Vodafone customers who want to stay in touch with friends, family and colleagues.
The service will be based on the familiar mobile commercial model of “Calling Party Pays.” As they do today, Vodafone customers will prepay or pay for the service through their monthly bill, while MSN Messenger customers will be able to pay through packages available in connection with MSN Messenger.
The service will bring together customers of MSN Messenger (165 million customers) and Vodafone (155 million customers) as messaging continues to grow in popularity on PCs and mobile phones.
Building on and complementing the messaging success of SMS, instant messaging between PCs and mobile phones enables new service benefits to customers such as immediacy, the ability to tell whether a contact is available to receive a message (presence) and the ability to see the text of whole conversations.
“MSN and Vodafone are working to enhance messaging between mobile phones and PCs, ultimately delivering a richer experience to customers. By enabling our customers to see each other’s presence on both PC and mobile devices, we are expanding our customers’ ability to make smart communication choices and connect instantly
via IM to the people they care about most,” said MSN Communication Services corporate vice president and Member Platform group at Microsoft Corp Blake Irving.
“We have brought together two of the world’s largest messaging communities with a first of its kind for both industries — a seamless PC-to-mobile instant messaging service. Vodafone customers will now be able to use IM and its additional service benefits to stay in touch with mobile and PC friends and family. IM is a growing part of the increasingly important mobile messaging market. By bringing our collective customers together, we’ll deliver more options for staying in touch when messaging. Our agreement will grow IM and SMS, meaning additional revenue for Vodafone,” said Vodafone chief marketing officer Peter Bamford.
MSN and Vodafone plan to launch the enhanced messaging service in several European countries before the end of the year.
MAM
Fringe festival finally hits Mumbai stage in March
60 plus shows from 10–15 March 2026 at NCPA plus Bandra venues.
MUMBAI: The Fringe is no longer on the fringe, it’s centre stage in Mumbai, ready to turn the city into a creative playground. After nearly 80 years of shaking up global performance culture from Edinburgh to Prague and Adelaide, the world’s largest open-access arts movement makes its India debut with the Mumbai Fringe Festival from 10 to 15 March 2026.
Kicking off at the iconic Tata Theatre, NCPA, the six-day celebration will spill across Bandra’s buzzing creative circuit, Khar Comedy Club, 3 Art House and indifferent @ Gharonda delivering nearly 60 performances in comedy, theatre, poetry, storytelling and experimental work. This isn’t a sit-down spectacle; it’s a city on the move, with audiences hopping between venues to catch new voices and bold ideas in their rawest form.
The lineup mixes homegrown stars with international heavyweights. Rohan Joshi, Kanan Gill, Varun Grover, Aakash Gupta, Priya Malik, Amandeep Khayal, Urooj Ashfaq and Amit Tandon bring the Indian edge, while global gems include Nigel Miles Thomas’s award-winning solo Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act, The Shakespeare Edit’s striking Macbeth adaptation and David Hoskin’s genre-blending Haunted House (mime, comedy, storytelling mash-up). True to Fringe spirit, the programme thrives on intimacy, invention and fearless creative risks.
Tickets are already live on Bookmyshow, with several shows sold out, signalling strong early buzz. Co-founders Steve Gove (of the 25-year-old Prague Fringe) and Simar Singh (UnErase Poetry) are steering the ship, united by the belief that Mumbai and India is primed for the Fringe model.
Steve Gove said, “Bringing Fringe to Mumbai has been a long-held dream. Cities around the world have embraced this model and watched it reshape their creative landscapes. Mumbai has the energy, the appetite and the talent to make this extraordinary.”
Simar Singh added, “The Fringe model gives artists complete freedom. It creates space for new voices and unexpected ideas to meet audiences directly. Mumbai deserves a platform like this.”
Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society chief executive Tony Lankester chimed in, “Born in Scotland nearly 80 years ago, the Fringe has always stood for joy, openness and giving everyone a platform with minimal gatekeeping… We are delighted to see the Mumbai Fringe carry this same spirit forward.”
In a country bursting with artistic tradition, the Fringe’s arrival feels both overdue and electric, a chance for audiences to experience unfiltered, up-close performance that has quietly shaped modern theatre worldwide. Grab tickets on Bookmyshow before the best spots vanish. Mumbai’s creative margins just got a whole lot louder.
