One day the world may very well prove me wrong but for now I don’t want 3G in my laptop. In case you are wondering, I don’t want it in my iPad or my iPod Touch either. People seem intent on convincing themselves that they need 3G in these devices – they don’t.

Here’s the thing, I pay around $80 a month for lightening-fast, unlimited use Internet. It is rated at 100mbps, I see around 30 of it, not bad for semi-rural Japan – but it costs $960 a year and if I add my cell phone bill into the mix – my bill would probably be edging pretty close to $2000; kind of a lot to be paying for fat air but that is the minimum I can get away with in my line of work.

The thing with 3G devices is that, for the time being, they require individual data subscriptions. In these parts each one will hit you for about $40 a month. In a year that amounts to $500. The thing is I never really go anywhere that doesn’t have some sort of access – my desk at work has free (unmonitored) Internet, if I sit down in a coffee shop I can usually pick up some sort of free signal, there are two unlocked connections that I can access from my living room. Personally, I’d rather put that $500 into buying some extra RAM or getting an SSD. But that is just me and there are people who do need a wireless connection on the road.

Here’s the thing: you can get that if you tether your laptop to your phone. Most “smart” phones can be tethered – and if your cell carrier doesn’t want you to do that there are almost always workarounds. Free 3G would be one thing, but free always comes at some sort of a price.So why do I need 3G in my MacBook Air?