Mark Haverkate.

• Position: Brief Article

Call it the old, "who'd have thought" routine. Mark Haverkate has been there, heard that.

Twenty years ago, when he entered the emerging cable television industry, who'd have thought HBO would become as common as the nightly news? And fifteen years ago, when he entered the emerging cellular phone industry, who'd have thought those odd, little gadgets would become as ubiquitous as today's mini-vans?

Haverkate can't wait for the day when people are clucking over 24-hour-a-day, high-speed Internet service in every home: Who would have thought ... "I want to be able to say, 'Well, I always thought it would."

As CEO of Littleton-based WideOpenWest, Haverkate is in a potentially ideal spot to deliver that punch line. His one-year-old company has bold plans to build and operate a high-capacity fiber optic network that would go head-to-head with the legacy systems of telcom giants like AT&T. It would offer digital cable TV, telephone service and a virtual library of video-on-demand. But its top priority would be what Haverkate calls "pedal to the metal" Internet service, allowing customers to download files in seconds - much faster than the older systems of the giants - and offering consumers a choice of competing Internet Service Providers.

In nine months, WideOpenWest has hammered out franchise agreements that put it within reach of more than one million households in major Western cities - including Denver and its suburbs. The biggest challenge lies ahead: actually building the network.

But Haverkate can't take his eyes from the prize: a residential customer base just waiting to...