Superclick Networks Inc. of Montreal said Monday that it has agreed to be purchased by America's biggest phone company for $15 million if the Montreal company's shareholders agree. The sides hope the deal with be approved in the fourth quarter.

For co-founder Sandro Natale, the deal means the firm has come quite a long way since the day 10 years ago he and a partner thought of delivering high speed Internet to Montreal hotels.

"We never really thought that this was going to be something big," he said in a telephone interview. "It started up with a small office on St. Laurent (Street). We had some makeshift desks on a bunch of boxes. Our board room was held together by milk crates."

Funding came from the partners and an angel investor.

At the time, he admits, the product was very immature. But the fact that it was a small company meant the software could be honed "on the fly" after meeting with customers.