[nuclear_eclipse]

T-Mobile allows anyone to pick up any of their standard plans without signing a contract, and without even requiring you to purchase a phone from them; they'll gladly sell you a SIM chip with a plan, and you provide the GSM phone. The only reason I still go with the contract is because I'm perfectly happy with T-Mobile, and I decided that I wanted to upgrade to the G1 at the $179 rate, as opposed to paying almost $400 for it without the contract.

So, if you don't like contracts, pick T-Mobile; they're the closest thing to Europe available in the US.

[randallsquared]

One nit, though: don't let the really terrible website and phone service get you down. If you go to a T-mobile store, everything's easy, fast, and efficient, and the reps are either knowledgeable or willing to ask someone who is, on the spot. It's a totally different experience from that on the T-mobile customer service line, and I wasn't able to use the website to do anything I wanted. At the time, what I wanted was to buy a G1 full price, but I would have settled for "with a contract", and I never managed to get it done, finally going to Wal-mart and picking one up for slightly less anyway, and then using AT&T for a few months before the lack of 3G service (the G1 doesn't do AT&T 3G) drove me back to T-mobile. However, it hasn't been useful since I came back to them, either. The in-store service is really excellent at every store I've been to, so just go there physically.