Hmmm... I don't even own a cell phone, so I'm not sure how I did my account activation. I may have asked a friend to help verify the account or at that time it wasn't a requirement. I'm pretty sure it will be required to get the money out of the account though. It is assumed that everyone has a cell phone, but that is not the case.

There are probably lots of old phones around that people will give away. Get one of those, set up a Google email account, download Google Authentication ap using WiFi and authenticate that way?