With pay phones next on the telecommunications deregulation list – a decision’s expected this summer – there’s at least one independent operator set to nab a share of the $700-million market.

Canada Payphone Corporation of Burnaby, b.c. has recently signed an agreement with AT&T Canada Long Distance Services that essentially has cpc promising to provide and maintain the phones – which will be branded with at&t logos – in exchange for the Toronto-based carrier’s long-distance services.

‘All I want is 10% of the market – that’s $70 million in today’s numbers,’ says Stephen Niven, vice-president of corporate development for cpc.

cpc aims to set up 3,500 phones across Canada, starting in Vancouver and Toronto, in its first year. Over the next five years, it plans on installing some 21,000 phones across the country.

Niven says his goals are not unrealistic. In the u.s., where pay phones have been deregulated since 1984, there are about two million pay phones, 15% of which are run by independents, he says. ‘That sort of gives you some flavor as to the market penetration that we’ll be able to get at.’

In fact, according to Niven, the numbers here might even be better, thanks to the fact that the pay phone market is not as saturated. ‘The penetration level in Canada is less than half that in the u.s. on a per capita basis,’ he says.

In this decade of a more open telecommunications marketplace, all signals point to approval for pay phone deregulation from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. If that happens, how does cpc intend to go about building its business? By promising site providers something Niven says Ma Bell hasn’t yet put on the table: free advertising.

‘Basically, what we’re going to do is provide additional revenue to the site providers,’ says Niven. He says the company will tempt site providers away from installing – or even keeping – the monopoly’s pay phones by offering on-phone scrolling advertising. For example, a convenience store could have its snack specials scrolling by, while a shopping mall could feature certain stores on its pay-phone displays.

While the newer Bell pay phones have the same functionality, the company – which has 100,000 pay phones across Ontario and Quebec – uses it only to promote Bell services at this time. However, a spokesperson says that the company may consider advertising in the future.

In addition, according to Niven, the cpc phones will have ‘speed dial’ buttons that can be offered up to the sponsoring sites so that users can access information or security. For that matter, the buttons can be further ‘leased’ to other companies. Imagine, for example, how much traffic a taxi company could generate if it were to invest in a grocery store’s speed-dial button?

Amidst all this apparent generosity, how will cpc make money off the phones?

The anticipated $70 million would include all the coins dropped in all the phones across Canada, along with whatever profit margin cpc, as the reseller of at&t long distance, decided upon. (Niven says the company is considering offering what has amounted to marketing nirvana in residential phone service – a flat rate for long-distance calls in Canada and the u.s. He won’t say what that rate would be.)

Nivens, who is a former operations manager for bc tel, says the company is poised to start installing phones in the Vancouver and Toronto areas if and when the crtc gives its thumbs-up. The company opened up a Toronto-area office (in Mississauga, Ont.) under Jerry Wistinski, who used to be the director of pay phones for Edmonton-based Telus.

Niven is aware that, despite the fact cpc’s management team is made up of former executives from other phone companies, it’s tough to put one over on technologically adept Bell. First off, it’s had a healthy head start in Canada, with about 180,000 pay phones across the country. Also, whatever cpc can do, Bell can do, too – and with a lot more money behind it.

A ‘speed dial’ button is not enough to cripple Bell Canada or its holding company, bce, which is the largest and most profitable company in Canada.

In other words, it’s not as if Bell can’t turn around and go one better than cpc.

‘That’s the risk you take,’ says Niven.