T-mobile's network in the USA is far, far, far less complete than Cingular's.
T-Mobile basically covers MAJOR cities and interstate routes. SOME mid-size cities are covered by roaming agreements with a handful of other carriers. , personally, get great Cingular GSM service at my house but bare get any TMO service there. And that is in a suburban part of a very major city.
Since Virgin UK operates on the T-Mobile UK system, I'd ahve thought that Virgin UK would have had a roaming deal with T-Mobile USA, like Orange UK does. Humph!