The US is still split between carriers using cdma, and gsm. So if the carrier is on cdma, SIM cards don't exist.
Both still have the CDMA-carrier mindset of wanting only "their" devices on their networks. In the past they would not (usually?) activate a phone not sold by them even if could work, but I feel like I've heard of people using unlocked devices with Verizon, but it could just be iPhones.