Websites requiring a phone number is bad business and potential discrimination<p>Millions of Americans don't have cell phones . Either they are too expensive or the are disabled or other reasons that prevents them for having a mobile phone . Cellphone service is very expensive ,requires decent credit and many poor and disabled people cannot afford it
1) More than 92% of Americans have cell phones[1].<p>2) An SMS/MMS-enabled number is free from Google Voice.<p>3) Cell plans don't require credit (except possibly for the phone itself). You can pre-pay.<p>4) This may be discrimination, but so is requiring an email address. The question is whether it's illegal discrimination, and the answer is no. "Phone type" is not a protected class, like race or religion, in the United States. "Income level" is also not a protected class.<p>1. <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/26/chapter-1-always-on-connectivity/" rel="nofollow">http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/26/chapter-1-always-on-co...</a>
I am homeless and a homeless advocate. I agree with you. Email addresses can be had for free and accessed for free via, for example, going to a public library.<p>I am online all the fucking time, even when my tablet or laptop has died and I don't yet have the means to replace it. Sometimes I have a phone. Sometimes, I don't. I have yet to find a 100% free and reliable means to have a phone number.
80% of Americans below the federal poverty line have cellphones. (<a href="http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/census-americans-poverty-typically-have-cell-phones-computers-tvs" rel="nofollow">http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/census...</a>)