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Living the Dream

Now Karlsson watches the weather change over the lake from his floor-to-ceiling windows. In the summer, when the light remains well into the night and his kids are off from school, Karlsson spends his mornings doing carpentry or taking the children swimming. During the afternoons and evenings, he focuses on his work. With his summer tan coming along nicely this year, his only worry is that his colleagues may not recognize him.

"I have many colleagues and friends who say they'd love to live in the countryside if they didn't have to abandon their career," Karlsson says. "Here you can get a high quality of life at a lower cost and without the noise and distractions of big-city life; the workday is so much more efficient."

"To me, taking the rowboat out for some perch fishing at the end of the day is much more appealing than going for after-work beers in some big-city pub."

Tomorrow: In Part 4 of our "Broadband Innovations" series, people in Washington State discover the benefits of high-quality healthcare obtained remotely via broadband.

(Series author Kajsa Linnarsson is a visiting reporter covering global developments in broadband for PC World. A graduate of Stanford University's Innovation Journalism program, she lives in Hudiksvall, Sweden, in a region known as Fiber Optic Valley for its concentration of cutting-edge communication technology companies.)