I don't know if this is a late 201x thing, but over decades of having piss-poor credit and no funds with which to make advanced payments, I never once had a problem getting phone and Internet service. Renting cars? Yes. Needing to provide some extra documentation for landlords? Yes. Opening new checking accounts? Yes. Getting DSL or cable? Not once.
I was surprised too. It was for having zero credit rather than bad credit. Maybe it was just a corner case I fell into. It was in Petaluma CA in 2010 or so.
When I was moving into my first apartment in 2000, one of my planned roommates had the same problem. He had never had any sort of credit/debt account and the landlord wasn't able to actually pull a credit report.
