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Connecting Washington to the World Cable Television in Washington State has grown and changed dramatically since its early days in the 1950s when its mission was to bring a handful of broadcast channels to homes in rural or hilly areas that could not receive overtheair television signals. In the 1970s and 1980s this community antenna television model developed to eventually serve up dozens of new channels that could only be received on the cable system. In 1996 Congress passed sweeping new legislation that for the first time allowed cable and telecommunications providers to compete with one another and since then the cable industry has invested billions of dollars of private risk capital to createstate of the art broadband networks available to over 93 of all households in Washington State. Cable companies are now the leading provider of highspeed broadband internet in Washington State and offer a full range of video and telephone services to consumers and businesses throughout the state.