That’s not how it works. It’s part of the handset price, not the carrier price.

You can buy an iPhone and never put a sim in it, you still have your cloud backup in place for apps, settings, data etc.

I’m in the EU right now, and paying around $15 per month for unlimited sms, calls and 60gb of data. They also provide roving sims, so I use my data and service when I’m in the US for the same price.

It’s not Apple fucking you over on your bill, it’s your carrier.