They first started to ask for phone confirmation in a few countries only. I had asked a friend of mine in Eastern Europe who was sure that he didn't had to give his phone number when he opened his gmail account a while ago. When he tried to create an account for me, they were asking for his phone number now. So apparently they've changed their policies in many, if not all, countries by now.

Mainly I use freemail accounts for private purposes as junk addresses. They are quite handy when you sign up somewhere, so when those addresses end up being sold to spammers your good addresses don't get polluted. I once used icqmail and the mailboxes are full of spam now. So happy auditing.

As for Google Analytics it is (was?) not necessary to use a gmail account. I started with Analytics long before I thought about getting gmail. They still keep nagging me from time to time to sign up for gmail, but it's not mandatory.