The UK government and India’s telecoms industry have agreed to share expertise and develop AI tools aimed at making communications networks more resilient to increasingly sophisticated scams.
The UK government and India’s main mobile operators’ body have agreed to deepen co-operation on using artificial intelligence to fight online fraud, in a move officials say is aimed at making telecoms networks more resistant to scams and other digital harms.
The memorandum of understanding, signed on 14 September 2026 with the Cellular Operators Association of India, sets out a framework for sharing knowledge, exchanging expertise and exploring how new AI tools can be used to design, manage and secure communications networks. According to the UK government, the partnership is intended to strengthen fraud resilience in both countries as criminals increasingly exploit digital channels across borders.
The deal also reflects a broader push by London and New Delhi to align technology policy with security goals. The UK government said the agreement supports the Technology Security Initiative and the UK-India Vision 2035, both of which are meant to encourage innovation without weakening trust in digital services. Officials have argued that this is especially important because digital fraud is rarely confined to one jurisdiction; the government has said more than two-thirds of UK fraud cases have an international element.
Ben Mellor, the acting British High Commissioner to India, said the speed of technological change meant industry had to play a central role in protecting consumers, businesses and institutions from malicious actors. Lt Gen Dr SP Kochhar, director general of COAI, said the next stage of connectivity should be “intelligent, secure, resilient and citizen-centric”, adding that telecom networks would increasingly become AI-enabled systems capable of improving security and service quality while helping protect users from emerging digital risks.
The agreement comes as governments and telecoms groups around the world look for ways to counter increasingly sophisticated scams, including those enabled by automation and generative AI. By bringing together British and Indian operators, the two sides are seeking to turn that same technology against the fraudsters, with the emphasis on cross-border co-ordination rather than isolated national efforts.
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