For Americans, yes... but everywhere else in the world phone numbers are cheap as dirt. When I was overseas in Spain my local number cost me 3 euros/month
There was a service that only charged if the phone was used that day. A family member of mine would turn on their phone once a month, check messages, make a few calls, and then turn the phone off until the next month. I think they were paying about $2 a month.
Not exactly an endorsement. I had unlimited calls, texts and 20GB of 4G data for less than 10 dollars for a few years until the recent price hike every company decided they wanted a slice of. Even then, it came out at about 11 bucks. North American phone packages are a joke with all the oligopoly BS going on.