FòrumCAT

In China there is no such thing as a throwaway number (at least outside of black markets). All numbers require ID to acquire.

For the US it would be a bit different. VOIP numbers do exist but they are often also blocked by services (this isn't black and white but there are services that will quite accurately map numbers into ranges like home/cell/business/VoIP).

But of course the assumption would be that if they start requiring phone numbers for WiFi access the logical next step would be to make all numbers traceable to humans.

Then they'll lobby against public WiFi. I was in China recently and (depending on the province) you need a phone number to access public WiFi so that they know who you are.