so I’m not sure where it was posted but i remember someone saying in another thread that you can now use prepaid phones with sms protect. Is this true? if so i have a few followup questions.
Some of them - now, but not all. Trying a number is probably the quickest way to test if a number will work or not.
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if i don’t have a phone yet how do i find out if they work or not? is there a database that lets me know that? don’t want to buy phone and find out it isn’t compatible. i don’t have the money to afford i-phones or expensive contracts.
I don’t believe it was you could never use all prepaid phones, I used a trac phone that was upgraded to a i phone at some point in the past that also worked on the sms protect system.
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It’s not usually the phone - it’s usually the carrier.
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is there any way to know if it works ahead of time though?
Not that I am aware of - you could ask them when you purchase the phone.
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It’s not really the provider or the type, per se. It’s how the number is classified. While originally most pre-paid numbers weren’t working, some would. Most regular subscription phones worked fine, but then a handful didn’t, because at one point or another, the number itself was registered through the FCC as a pre-paid number. There wasn’t really any hard and fast thing that was evident. People liked to point at Cricket Wireless, but some still worked fine despite being Cricket. And then we’d have people coming in here who had been a subscriber through Verizon as long as they had the phone but at some point in it’s lifetime that number was registered through the FCC as a pre-paid number.
So it’s not really on the provider in question, it’s all based on the number’s registration through the FCC.
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so there is absolutely no way to find out before hand if the number i’m given is going to be a valid number? aside from after the fact?
Not that I’ve personally seen? It’s a nuisance, and I’m sorry there isn’t a better answer. I just know all of that from what I’ve seen posted here and through the support article that’s up. And I’ve yet to see anyone who has managed to get their number classified differently. I know people have tried going through their provider and Blizzard both, but it’s something higher than either of those two can alter.
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well then it looks like ill just have to decouple the authenticator when it starts dying. until blizz changes their minds about allowing prepaid numbers.
Uh, they already did. That changed a few weeks ago (if not a little longer). I believe the only thing not supported now are VOIP numbers (like from Google etc.)
Edit: Looks like it was about 2 months ago now.
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oh they did? so all prepaid numbers work with world of warcraft or is it just certain games?
SMS is battle.net wide and not game specific. Just like the authenticator 
From what I understand, you really should be fine with any valid cell number that can receive SMS messages now.
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so any prepaid carrier would work?
Far as I understand it, yes. You can see from the support article I linked that the verbiage around pre-paid phones was completely taken out. I’ve also not seen any posts with people having trouble adding it now.
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does it work with tracphones?
It’s not really something they can just change their minds on. It’s whatever authenticator system they’re running on. I think (and this is just pure conjecture on my part), if they could have changed it up to allow for more people to properly protect their accounts? Then they absolutely would have. I don’t care if that makes me a shill for Blizzard, but they have no reason to make it harder on folks.
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If you can demonstrate the financial need, you can get a phone and service absolutely free through the Federal Lifeline Program. The phone itself is provided via any number of different companies, but the service itself is provided through major carriers.
I use Lifeline and they gave me a Motorola G-something or other, free service monthly and something like 10 gigs of data. The number is a standard number (not prepaid) and the service itself is provided by T-Mobile.
I’ll just note for posterity that the same program will pay for your internet service (up to $25 a month, I think) if you qualify. Most providers have an “ACP” (Affordable Connectivity Program) tier which you can just have for free if you qualify.
The phone/number you get from Lifeline will work with the Blizz (or any company’s) authenticators. It’s a normal phone with a normal number, and as far as anyone on the “outside” is concerned, you just have a (insert popular carrier here) phone and account.
Being enrolled in social services like Medicaid, your state’s version of Medicaid (Like Medi-Cal here in CA), EBT (Food Stamps), WIC, etc., automatically qualifies you for Lifeline or ACP.
https://www.fcc.gov/general/lifeline-program-low-income-consumers
and
https://www.fcc.gov/acp
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what about medicaid? im too young for medicare.