I’m just going to do what all the cheats and smurfs are going to do. Use a fake number.
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Has to be a special phone number by a major phone service provider.
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I think its a 5000 IQ idea (dumb) as well. for many common sense reasons:
The #1 being phones get lost, stolen, destroyed or wiped
#2 numbers get changed and anyone that wants to collect anything has a high risk to losing their stuff if any said thing happens.
#3 For the midwest rural communities they lose out to access from bad towers.
#4 From Low income areas they lose out because they cant afford to keep the same phone on every month.
#5 and if smurffs were ever getting solved. Thats a big “no” because they already buy the game on sale, now its free and Blizzard instead gives that money to the Dollar store’s "Burn Phone" section. (snaps phone in half, tosses in bin). 
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Yeah, but your bad judgement and irresponsibility shouldn’t be treated as a baseline for what is and is not acceptable.
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I get that this might be a weird decision on their part but it makes sense in a way.
Anyone who can afford a console, a PC, or access to the internet very much can afford a phone or get a burner number too. Just get with the times or fall behind honestly.
And if you are worried about privacy invasion then you’re just delusional at best. Many governments worldwide already have all the data they could ever need regarding you as a person. It’s been inescapable for many years now.
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“legacy”/OW1 players shouldnt need this. just take a look at the system CSGO uses.
To who? Almost every company you interact with already has your phone number. Telemarketers don’t need to know who you are to call you, they call everyone.
No-one ‘sells’ phone numbers. 
ITT: smurfs and/or cheaters who are mad that it’ll be harder for them to smurf/cheat.
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It’s not. It’s about millions of players’ bad judgement who happily accept this change.
Im excited about it. But, I’d be surprised if they require it for any mode besides Competitive. That’d be short-sighted of them, imo.
They sell it into number pools. It’s legal. Radio stations do the same thing. Number pools are “real” numbers that have been checked/verified. Are you a teenager or something?
Yeah I should have clarified.
Blizzard isn’t a radio station. No-one at a company with GDPR and mutli-jurisdictional privacy obligations is selling phone numbers.
It would be a legal nightmare, a PR nightmae and you’d make more money from selling user metadata (demographic information, etc) and/or offering your platform for advertising instead. Both of those approaches don’t involve directly selling personal information and make you way more money.
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Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s right.
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Here’s your last reply from me child
The issue is that it’s MUCH more likely that a smurf would buy a $20 burner phone than a returning or new player.
When someone makes a new phone account… sold. Along with all the harvested data that goes through it.
And yeah, there are companies out there with the sole business model of harvesting and selling data like who is using what phone numbers, email addresses, email details, what websites you visit, who you talk to, what you buy, when you buy, where you go, when you go there, how long you were there for, who was nearby at the time, and just about everything you post online.
It’s all automated, and done with a level of precision that would make a stalker jealous.
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Yes for the people who have 324726534873 accounts 
That’s a very short sighted view on the topic.
It’s a F2P game in which Blizzard wants some level of control over how many accounts one can create. I’m sure there are ways to get an online only internet phone number.
Thought they banned burner phones and prepaid phones?
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question is, for people who only has line phone, do they have automated system to call the number and provide the security code like most bank services do.
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Im po’d about this decision too. It is based upon pure ARROGANCE and zero knowledge of geographical Communications infrastructure of the United States.
the number of storms that blast through here and ONLY the underground burried telcom WIRES work. We’ve had some really nasty weather this year and cell towers working reliable is NOT a thing.
Oh well, cant expect much from this game company’s owners that never leave suburbia and see the rest of the United States. Which even if they did, they more than likely FLY over it, at night and/or are asleep on the flight. While ignoring 800,000 SQ/miles of area where only SMALL towns exist.