I can understand the motivation. I've had the same number since the 90's and never once got a spam call until I was in the hospital last year and since then I've been getting 2-3 a day every day. They've probably left at least a thousand voice mails for a great loan opportunity, all from different numbers and different loan amounts.

Then the FCC have hid this well - they don't want this to stop spam they want it to link phone numbers to people.

If they wanted to stop spam they'd fix it so that carriers were required to ensure the numbers aren't spoofed. This would stop spam overnight.

"phone number?"

"i dont have a phone"

"emergency contact?"

"911, no one else is better suited to respond to an emergency?"

Personal anecdata: I get much more spam calls on a number from a country with mandatory ID sim card registration than on a number from a country where anonymous sim cards are allowed. Both numbers are almost 20 years old and I barely use them for anything but calls/sms to friends/relatives and receiving bank 2FA SMSes.

Probably a coincidence. I didn't get any spam calls either, until I did.

>until I was in the hospital last year

So much for HIPAA huh?