How Important is it to Get a 3G Phone

I live in a rural area. No 3G anywhere. Not from Verizon (even though I have a Storm for work). Not from AT&T (where I have a Curve). How important is that I consider a phone for my AT&T account with 3G? I am up for renewal on my AT&T account and I keep going back and forth between the Bold and the Curve 8900 because of the 3G question. I've done the research, and I keep hearing that AT&T is going to replace Edge towers with 3G towers and servie on Edge will be spotty. Is this a worthy worry? I really like the 8900's Wi-Fi and GPS. Any help here?

I don't feel 3G is that important, get a 8900 with wifi, you will never miss 3G and battery life is much better

I have a bold and an 8900. my bold is set to use just 2g/edge. It isn't very important to me since I am 85% of the time in a hotspot.

Although between the bold and the 8900, i have to say the bold outperforms my 8900. The bold lasts longer as far as battery is concerned so You might also want to consider this. I use my 8900 more though primarily because of its size.

I was actually only talking about battery life on 3G, I am also in a hot spot almost all the time

Thanks. That answered my questiion. I'm going for the 8900.