Then blame the government because telco's didn't used to allow number transfering. Then consumers complained and the government made it mandatory.

/Citation needed/

They didn't allow number transfers between carriers, but they did always allow number transfers within carriers AFAIK. Perhaps there was a time when numbers were hard tied to SIMs and I'm too young to remember?

Is it really the telco's fault, though? It seems that telcos suddenly found themselves pushed in the business of identity management and proffing without haing any intention of doing that.

Telco's never made any claims about tieing your identity to your phone number - they just move information around. Blaming telcos is like blaming a hammer for not being big enough when you're tring to drive a screw with it.

It's definitely not like that at all.

It's not even really identity management. It's just way too easy to transfer a phone number. A simple protocol like, sending a text or email to the information on file and then waiting 24 hours to complete the transfer would be enough to stop 99% of number transfers.

Instead they process these transfer instantly, often using very little information to verify that the request was legitimate. You can often sweet talk the customer service reps with simple, "I forgot what information I used to sign up." They process that request and then it ruins your life and haunts you for the next 5 years.