There is something notably missing from Jonathan Epstein’s young professional lifestyle.

He has no cell phone.

Epstein, an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice in Chicago, gave it up three years ago, deciding the added convenience – and headache – of being reachable anywhere, any time, was not worth the cost of paying the monthly bill.

Epstein, 34, said his office phone and his home phone suffice. Besides, he said, he tired of the added fees and charges cell phone companies tacked onto his bill, making it far more expensive than the deal he thought he bargained for. From what he sees in the advertisements, it has only become more complicated to figure out how much a cell phone will cost.

“It’s just an explosion of plans and phones,” he said. “I can’t be bothered.”

He prefers to manage both the cost and the hassle by visiting pay phones regularly and checking his home and office voice mail four or five times a day, he said.

Never mind that the number of pay phones is diminishing across the country; Epstein has a talent for finding them. “I couldn’t tell you where one is within two blocks of my office, but I could find one.” And when he travels, his job provides him a cell phone, or he places calls from the hotel. “I don’t need to be tracked down wherever I am.”

“Everybody assumes everybody has a cell phone,” Epstein said.

And in increasing numbers, they do. More than 60 percent of the U.S. population, or 182 million people, own a cell phone. Some of Epstein’s friends even use high-end devices like BlackBerrys or Treos that allow them to make calls and access e-mails wirelessly.

All of Epstein’s friends and family members have a cell phone, and regularly urge him to join the club.

“I do have one set of friends that got so annoyed they bought me a prepaid phone for Christmas, but I still haven’t loaded it up (with minutes),” Epstein said. Being inaccessible is a sore subject among his friends who want to be able to reach him on the fly, he said, but “it annoys my friends more than it annoys me.” After all, they are all accessible to him.

There are times a cell phone would come in handy, he admits.

It would be nice to make calls during a drive home, he said. Or to be able to locate friends in a crowded room. Or if he should get a flat tire. But the proliferation of cell phones has changed social norms – and not always for the better, he argues.

“Now it’s an excuse so that people can be late,” Epstein said. Instead of making an effort to be on time, people simply call to announce their lateness and expect it to be OK. “I think it’s become a crutch.”