The FCC wants to curb robocalls. A provision buried in its proposed rules might also end anonymous prepaid phone service.
The agency has put forward rules designed to reduce robocalling, one component of which would require carriers to verify the identities of their customers before activating service. Public comments on the proposal have drawn significant pushback from people who see the identity requirement as disproportionate. One commenter put it plainly: "We need to stop spam, but let's not be Russia." The concern is that tying phone activation to verified identity would effectively kill the market for anonymous prepaid phones — no workaround, just gone.
Burner phones are not the exclusive domain of criminals and thriller protagonists. Domestic abuse survivors, journalists protecting sources, and ordinary people who prefer not to hand their identity to a carrier all depend on anonymous prepaid service. Tucking a surveillance-adjacent registration mandate inside an anti-spam rulemaking lets it avoid the scrutiny it would attract as a standalone proposal.
The FCC has taken runs at robocalling before, with results that charitably could be called partial. If the identity-verification provision survives public comment, expect courts — and privacy advocates — to have opinions.