Gmail requires authentication by phone, sms

In a recent step to fight spam Google has been sneaking a "verify your account" with a SMS step when opening a Gmail account. It's not everywhere yet but if things go as they normally go we will all soon see that little "verify" page. So not only have we got to register our phones with our names and all that but we have to use those phones to verify our accounts. Soon you'll be able to do nothing without verifying it first. Although this will stop spammers it's a bit annoying and I sure hope they dont go full out with that or bring it to South Africa.