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Comments (187)

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  bsimpson
  Here's the link to submit a comment to the FCC:https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings/expressRan a quick search and found a whole bunch of news articles, but nobody includes info that makes it easy to route your comment. Feels like the beginning of Hitchhiker's Guide:> It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard.
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  toast0
  Great. As if telecoms can be trusted with customers' id. AT&T left my name, address, social security etc in an improperly secured database for others to have, and they tried to open accounts with it; they had retained the information after I closed my account, and they denied the information was coming from them for years before they finally admitted it and gave us all a quarter to call someone who cares and a year of credit monitoring.
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  grishka
  As a Russian: huh, you guys could still just buy a sim card without any kind of identification? Impressive. We had that ID requirement introduced way back in the 00s.Even EU countries seem to require an ID now. When I traveled to France and Belgium in 2024, I bought a French tourist sim card, and the carrier kept sending me some rather insistent messages that my line would get disconnected if I don't upload my passport in 30 days.
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  t1234s
  This is probably part of the larger scope of the system wanting to require ID to even boot a computer let alone connect to the internet.
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  dkdbejwi383
  This is how it works in Australia, which means it's a pain for tourists as you need to provide a passport for ID and get it activated, as opposed to just grabbing one at an airport kiosk and being ready to go on your way to the taxi or train like most other places.
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  OptionOfT
  This was the case in Belgium a couple of years ago.Everybody had to go to a store and have their ID read by the system, and if they didn't, the phone number would be shut down.Unsure how that worked for MVNOs though.Now I live in the USA and am well-familiar with the spam calls. I wonder if this new rule will reduce/prevent them. I think in general the ability to spoof numbers should be banned / controlled. Someone from India should not be allowed to call me with a caller ID from Mayo Clinic.
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  everdrive
  And people will keep carrying their phones with them. And keep using them. And keep installing apps. Yes, ideally we'd have laws against government infringement, but the capability to not use your phone is in your hands.
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  iammrpayments
  Had to buy one of these SMS activation services from a guy in Nigeria using a memecoin because claude decided to ban my account because they didn’t like my credit card brand and Claude requires sms activation for new accounts.Guess these guys are going to make more money in the near future.
• dec0dedab0de
  How about we start by forcing telecoms to not allow any fake caller ID from their network?
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  throwaway85825
  Wants to kill burner phones but somehow foreign phone scams are still rampant.
• Keyb0ardWarri0r
  I'm always surprised how bad ideas spread faster than good ideas among our rulers. Here is a map of countries where an ID is required (or not) https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/sim-card-regist...
• laughing_man
  Seems pointless to do this without also doing something about phone number spoofing.
• a34729t
  We should allow privateers to go after spammers, and get the seized assets. And spammer is then tortured appropriately. Satan could run a successful single issue campaign on this in the most religious state in the US.
• XYen0n
  After the implementation of SIM card real-name registration in China, scam calls can accurately state your personal information.
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  giancarlostoro
  I wish they would kill spam calling and texting instead.
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  brushfoot
  No more anonymous driving, thanks to Flock. Soon, no more anonymous calls, thanks to the FCC.Your bank already knows everything about you; why not your operating system, too?Soon your ISP will only let you online if your OS sends them the "right" information: your government ID.We should also abolish cash while we're at it. The government needs to know every purchase you've ever made, no exceptions.Of course, then we should tear down used bookstores. They're the biggest risk of all. Anyone can walk in and pick up pieces of paper that teach them dangerous ideas. Other religions. Philosophies. Poetry. How to make things.What we really need is a nation of drones walking to and fro in the image of our rulers, thinking their thoughts, practicing their religions, and parroting their words. It's the only way to be truly safe.
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  rirze
  Fundamentally un-American.That being said, many countries across the world already do this to eliminate burner phones. And many messaging apps require a phone number anyways so this basically locks down anonymous messaging through a phone.
• ncrc74
  Can't read the article without an account.
• lbcadden3
  I’m surprised it’s taken this long to go after this.In the name of “national security” and “protecting the children” and all.
• functionmouse
  does nothing to fight spam; only polices lawful usersthey call that "anarcho-tyranny"
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  9cb14c1ec0
  I expect the FCC to adopt this rule, and I also expect it to be challenged in court, on the basis that there are many other approaches to fighting spam calls that the FCC has not tried, but are much less intrusive.
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  giantg2
  Maybe a way around this is for intermediary companies to own the phone that happens to have service and then lease the phone.
• aaomidi
  This is the pathway Iran is using to provide tiered internet btw.Just putting it out there on how quickly this tech turned against the population.
• shevy-java
  They want perpetual monitoring of everyone. Same with age sniffing.Anyone still has any doubts? Or is it to ... protect the children?
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  garyfirestorm
  Isn’t this already a requirement? Can you really buy a burner phone/sim without providing identifying information?
• ncrc74
  Can't read the article without an account. Just sayin.
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  catigula
  I get over 10 scam calls a day. I'm forced to pay a company to block them because the free methods don't work. There's no way to work around it because they refuse to enforce the law on these companies cycling through burner numbers.
• anon
  undefined
• bondolo
  And yet, for some reason, it is impossible to stop spam calls and texts.
• nisegami
  This is standard in my country. Seemingly as a consequence, eSIMs require physically going to a store to be activated (on the telco side), which has always seemed insane to me.
• colinsane
  good for bitcoin
• bigbuppo
  This sounds like a great thing for people that beat their domestic partners. Make it harder for their victims to escape.
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  vfclists
  It was only a matter of time.The real issue is whether government's should have the right to metadata or the content of remote communications.Government's don't claim the right to monitor face to face communications so why should they have the right to do so for remote communications.
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  mrsssnake
  Regardless of this, I see phone network as a legacy thing that in perfect world should already be replaced with lightweight upgradeable calling protocol over IPv6.
• StepBroBD
  US of A’s Chinafication letsgooooooo
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  greenavocado
  I've got my popcorn and lawn chair out to watch the "voter id is racist" crowd to take a stand on this issue.Context: Voter ID Laws may seem like a good idea, but they’re actually pretty terrible! On the surface, these laws appear to be a reasonable way to stop people from pretending to be someone else when they vote. But the reality is that this kind of voter fraud almost never happens!!! Instead Voter ID Laws primarily prevent the poor, the elderly, and people of color from voting. They way they’ve disenfranchised people of color is part of a very long history of voter suppression and is a classic example of structural racism.
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  rusk
  They’ll get around to guns eventually …
• reaperducer
  Good luck with this.You can't make the desk clerk in a ghetto cell phone store care.I say this speaking as someone who has a T-Mobile account under the name George Washington with a Valley Forge, Pennsylvania address.
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  standardUser
  The Trump administration has been working overtime trying to build databases of people in this country. Leaving no stone unturned, legal or otherwise. I vaguely remember a time when American conservatives were against precisely this, often as a first principle. Maybe that's just an idealized memory on my part.
• jhartikainen
  [dead]
• throwaway27448
  We're already forced into the credit bureaus. Into traffic cameras. Into using credit cards and banks. The idea the state would let us actually say things online anonymously (or to each other) is completely unrealistic: we must be tagged and tracked through our lifecycle.
• onetokeoverthe
  [dead]
• bebeidjdkrjrjr
  [flagged]
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  sonorous_sub
  [flagged]
• josefritzishere
  Seems like classic regulatory overreach.
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  2OEH8eoCRo0
  Good. Telecoms should have a duty to know who uses their networks.