Many workers didn't have access to email, or they were wary of providing it to an employer. Without smart phones, they lacked access to apps. So basically, they had no way to register for an account and see their schedule on other applications.
During user studies, we saw that restaurants would still print out their schedules, and managers would take a photo and text it to employees.
This created problems when the workers treated this channel as two-way. For example, workers running late would text the manager, and the manager would not notice the message promptly while working.
I don't see what's the problem with prepaid phones. Do you mean feature phones?