Google, Amazon, and Twitter, among other sites like Dropbox, are rejecting some Reliance Jio phone numbers on their websites. This means that Jio users with those numbering schemes cannot receive SMS notifications or use 2-factor-authentication, where they can get a one-time-password (OTP) via SMS for an added layer of security. This is a significant security risk for these Reliance Jio users. Google and Amazon did not respond to a request for comment sent last week. A Twitter spokesperson said, "We take the safety and security of our users and their accounts on our platform very seriously. Generally, users can enable 2FA for added security to their Twitter accounts by SMS with more information here." Jio also did not respond to a query on the number of ranges they have in India, and on whether they are working with these companies to resolve this issue. Update: Dropbox responded saying that they'll work on resolving this issue, and "In the meantime, Dropbox users on Reliance Jio's network have a number of 2FA methods available to them, including U2F hardware tokens and app-based tokens that can be utilized instead of SMS-based 2FA." Why this is happening Reliance Jio seems to have registered a significant number of new "ranges" on India's mobile phone numbering system. Each mobile phone number in India starts with four-digit range numbers; for example: "9894". Each such range has a million phone numbers. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) allots these ranges to telecom operators if they can get a certain number of subscribers in the "circle"…
