Whats the deal with mobiles in the USA?

[bigred]

I'm going to New York tomorrow and I thought it would be simple to get hold of a cheap pay as you go simcard for an american mobile network. I already have a quadband phone, so this shouldn't be a problem.

My dad's work collegue has lent me a T-Mobile US prepaid sim card, which I hope will work. The credit on it has expired, so I have no way of testing it until I get to NY.

It seems 'prepaid' simcards are relatively new in America? Everything seems so complicated with no clear and simple definitions of what different terms mean. It also seems difficult to get hold of just a simcard.

So, a few simple questions I need answering ...
- Do you have to pay for incoming calls to mobiles in USA?
- How many different networks are there. There appear to be many, but some are only in certain areas?
- Anything else I should be aware of?

Thanks,
Alex

 

[Hate]

I can only speak from experience of using my vodafone sim in canada but..

I've heard that some places (i.e out of major populaiton) that it does cost to recieve a call.
The common networks are Verizon, Cingular, Sprint et al. Some locations will have a cluster of smaller ones.
Some handsets over there don't even use SIM cards, everything is hardcoded onto the phone!

 

[Conanius]

on most pay asyou go phones you have to pay to recieve calls. This applies when both phones are bought in america, so id assume it was the same when using an english phone with american sim...