When I first became interested in ham radio (the 1960s) that was actually a general motivator: the cost of phone calls was exorbitant at the time. My family even did cassette recordings back and forth in the mail just to hear familiar voices. I had people I wanted to talk to across the country (Canada) that were licensed or could be (my Dad knew Morse code and had the technical knowledge to pass the test) but I quickly discovered it wasn’t really practical even then. My brother in law living in Scarborough had a station, but with the antenna he could put up in a tiny backyard I never heard him on the other side of the Rockies 
There have been times where ham systems were superior to the PSTN: late '60s to mid '80s for instance, with handheld FM ‘walkie talkies’ and repeaters with autopatch which effectively presaged cell networks.
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