According to the National Consumer Law Center, a “public utility” is a business that:
- Is a natural monopoly, typically due to large demands for capital and other barriers to entry, and
- Is affected by the public interest and of great importance to health, welfare, or the economy.
(National Consumer Law Center, Access to Utility Service (7th ed. 2024), updated at www.nclc.org/library.)
In Connecticut, public utilities are regulated by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA). Regulated utilities include, electricity, gas, water, and telecommunications.
“PURA provides regulatory oversight of what is referred to as Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS), which is the traditional, analog voice transmission over copper wires. This service, however, has been largely replaced as customers have migrated towards more sophisticated competitive services.”
PURA does not regulate billing and services for cell phones, smart phones, or mobile phones.
https://portal.ct.gov/dcp/common-elements/consumer-facts-and-contacts/utilities?language=en_US
In 2009, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report to Congressional requesters entitled “FCC Needs to Improve Oversight of Wireless Phone Service.”
The committee wrote that “Concerns have arisen in recent years about the quality of wireless phone service, including specific concerns about billing; customer
service; and carriers’ contract terms, such as the fees carriers charge
customers for terminating their service before the end of the contract
period (early termination fees) . . . In June 2009, we reported
that such issues continued to be of concern to some consumers, as
demonstrated by the results of our survey of wireless phone service
users . . . Under federal law, the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) is responsible for fostering a competitive wireless
marketplace while ensuring that consumers are protected from harmful
practices.”
The websites below link to the full text of the legislation and additional contextual information [about the regulation of the telecommunications industry].
FCC Restoring Internet Freedom Order 2017 Repeal of net neutrality rules, issued Jan 4, 2018.
Communications Act of 1934 Information on the Act that combined and organized federal regulation of telephone, telegraph and radio communications as well as created the FCC.
Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act (Cable Act) of 1992 Text and summary of Act amending the Communications Act of 1934.
Telecommunications Act of 1996 Synopsis, text, and other materials related to the Act that led to deregulation of the telecommunications industry.
FCC Open Internet Order 2015 Order to protect the Open Internet issued March 12, 2015
From Access to Utility Service (7th ed. 2024):
“Public” utilities often are not in fact public, in the sense of being owned or operated by the public, but instead are owned by private stockholders. They are referred to as “public” not because of the nature of the ownership of the utility, but because the utility must offer service to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis. Three types of utility providers are referred to as public utilities: the private, investor-owned utility companies just mentioned; utility providers owned by a city, town, or other municipal entity; and rural electric cooperatives (also known as electric membership corporations). Public utilities typically sell gas, electricity, or water. Companies that deliver fuels such as propane or home heating oil are not public utilities.
Until recently, gas, electric, telephone, and water service were all regarded as natural monopolies. Utilities were granted a monopoly franchise to serve a particular geographic area on the premise that this would result in overall lower prices for consumers than would a situation in which several companies competed for the same set of customers. In exchange, the franchised utilities had the obligation to serve all customers in that service area. State and federal governments (and sometimes local governments) regulated these enterprises to achieve what the free market could not—the provision of reliable service at reasonable prices to anyone who demands it. The entity regulating public utilities in a state is usually the public service commission (PSC) or public utilities commission (PUC).
National Consumer Law Center, Access to Utility Service (7th ed. 2024), updated at www.nclc.org/library.
https://library.nclc.org/book/access-utility-service/116-concept-public-utility
