One of the most popular choices today among those who like to spend a quiet evening playing old-fashioned family board games is "Apples to Apples." First introduced in 1999, it became a million seller by 2003-and has won several awards for its publisher, Mark Osterhaus.

Osterhaus markets "Apples to Apples" and other board games through his "virtual company," Out of the Box Publishing. The company does not have traditional offices. Instead, employees work out of their homes-some in California, others in Illinois, Michigan and various spots in rural Wisconsin-communicating by phone and on the Web.

Osterhaus can run his company from anywhere that he can plug his laptop into a broadband connection. And since September 2005, he has been working from a rural home 10 miles outside of Richland Center, Wis. For Osterhaus and other professionals, high-speed Internet access is a business necessity. Yet in many rural areas, traditional broadband options, such as cable or DSL, are simply unavailable.

For Osterhaus, the solution is satellite broadband. The game designer gets his service from a company called WildBlue.

"WildBlue allows us to be where we are living right now," Osterhaus said. "We are in one of the most beautiful areas of Wisconsin. I can see the cattle walking up and down the hillside right outside my office window."

For people who want to take advantage of the rural way of life and get out of the city, WildBlue is a practical option. When Osterhaus moved to the area, he did not intend to do business in Richland County (pop. 18,000). But while meeting with Richland Electric to plan electric service installation for the new home, a cooperative representative mentioned that a satellite broadband option was coming soon.

Soon afterward, Richland Electric set up a demo WildBlue installation in its offices. "I brought my laptop down, hooked up and was able to do everything that I normally would do out of Madison," Osterhaus said.

"Apples to Apples" and other Out of the Box products require quality graphics and other data-heavy materials that the company's employees share with each other over the Web-and for this purpose, WildBlue's forward channel is more than adequate.

"WildBlue is freedom," said Osterhaus. "You can move yourself wherever you want to be, and that is priceless."


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