I found this sentence in a manga when the main character was trying to make a
call from a prison phone; however she is knocked down by another prisoner
before she can do so and is said:

> 『ここの電話は全て予約制だ！囚人みんなが電話をしたがっている しかも **いくらかけようと自由** ってんなら混雑ができるのは当たり前だろ』

The part in bold is giving me a hard time. I understood 「かけよう」in the "make a
phone call" sense of 「掛ける」. I haven't come across 「～ようと」constructions that are
not followed by a verb so far. I got the general meaning of the pharse but
cannot make out the grammar behind aforementioned construction.

In short my question is: What is the 「～ようと」construction in above stated
sentence.
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2019-11-17T20:57:20.430
73126
2019-11-18T05:47:04.727
35673
question
grammar
ようと followed by a noun