Independent Pay Phones Sporting Patented Frames
Callers using privately owned pay phones will probably spot the products of Jim DeArkland by the end of the year.
DeArkland is chief executive of Star Network Corp., a Ventura-based telecommunications company that founded the 1-800-You-Save directory assistance number used by independent pay-phone operators. And now he’s selling the metal frames and panels that advertise the number--or anything else. DeArkland holds U.S. patents for the concept and designs of the products.
About 80,000 independent pay phones are under contract to use the frames--located to the right and left of the phone key pad--and DeArkland said another 120,000 should be added by next year.
“Pay phones have always been used just to place a phone call,” he said. “But the way I saw it, you have an average of 700 people come to a phone every month and stand there for three minutes. I thought, was there a way to offer products and services while they stood there? . . . Where could I put advertising on the phone?”
A former owner of 3,500 pay phones, DeArkland knew independent owners were losing money whenever callers routed their calls through 1-800-Call-ATT, GTE’s 1-800-Collect or similar services used by large companies.
With these numbers heavily advertised and easy to recall, he said, something had to be done to shift the consumer to 1-800-You-Save.
“When someone goes to a telephone, when they’re dialing a number, they are focused on the keypad, and this is right next to the key pad,” he said. “What we’ve seen with our product is we can change buying decisions with this medium while [phone users] are standing there at the phone.”
DeArkland got into the pay-phone business in 1985, just before California deregulated the industry. He started with 100 phones, with plans to earn $100 per month per phone. He soon realized that to pay for technicians, accountants and coin collectors he would have to have the income of 500 phones.
In 1997, DeArkland sold the assets of Star Network--including 3,500 phones--to a Chicago-based firm looking to roll up the independent pay-phone companies in California. He retained the corporate name and added the patented frames and ads.
In addition to the independent pay-phone market, DeArkland is looking into selling the rights for the frames to the big pay-phone companies. Though they have 1-800 numbers of their own, he said, they don’t have rights to the frame concept or design.
“The whole pay phone market is 2.1 million pay phones, and the [independents] make up only 500,000 of those phones, with the balance owned by GTE, Pacific Bell, U.S. West, Bell Atlantic, Ameritech--they actually have the highest and best use for this product,” he said. “They all have about 200,000 pay phones and get an average of 700 exposures per phone per month. That’s 1.7 billion exposures annually.”
Ed Parham, owner of the 30-phone Par Payphone system in Studio City, was among the first to sign up for the 1-800-You-Save number and the advertising setup.
“I was very interested in the revenue, of course,” Parham said. “And cosmetically, the 800 number thing was appealing. It makes the phone look better, more attractive.”
