Talk:Public utility

District heating

District heating is common in northern Europe (and also in other continents, including North America). While in the richer countries, heat supply is a competitive market, in many central and eastern European countries, including countries of the former Soviet Union, it is most often the only practicable source of heat for apartment-dwellers and is considered a public utility and regulated as such. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.202.172.194 (talk) 13:08, 23 June 2005‎

first sentence

I think we should either remove the phrase 'in British English' or make it 'in British and American English', since the same usage is common in America. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Callowschoolboy (talk • contribs) 15:33, 21 June 2007

Poorly chosen link

"Publicly owned" here links to public company, but that is an article on companies with publicly traded stock, not on municipally or cooperatively owned companies. - Jmabel | Talk 16:13, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

The current article on "Utilities" links to "Travaux Publics" in French which means "Public Works". It should link to "Services Publics" instead. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.242.101.79 (talk) 18:00, 5 January 2011 (UTC)

Internet service as a utility?

What is the state of evolving law wrt internet service as a public utility? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.67.80.68 (talk) 14:02, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Look at the first source

The first source is an organization that is of dubious credibility when it comes to rationalizing privatization of utilities. The three organizations behind this source are PPIAF, PURC, The World Bank. At least two out of these three organizations can be questioned and may be perceived to have a vested interest.

The citation should be qualified that this is not a definitive argument, and that in many countries state owned utilities are as or more efficient than private utilities. Think about private water in South America... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.223.186.70 (talk) 23:55, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

arnetten@$9 2601:280:CB02:2323:7003:3DA8:1BC:CF4B (talk) 03:29, 1 August 2023 (UTC)

Wireless

This article doesn't mention wireless services. It seems that wireless services should be considered public utilities. Otherwise you create the situation where landline phone is a utility and mobile phones are not, or cable TV is a utility but satellite/broadcast TV are not. 97.113.68.147 (talk) 07:04, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Why The California Public Utilities Commission section?

Why does this particular state commission get its own subsection? Shouldn't it be removed, or supplemented by all the other state commissions (unlikely), or have its inclusion be explained? dweinberger 11:16, 12 June 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dweinberger (talk • contribs)

Why The California Public Utilities Commission section?

Why does this particular state commission get its own subsection? Shouldn't it be removed, or supplemented by all the other state commissions (unlikely), or have its inclusion be explained? dweinberger 11:18, 12 June 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dweinberger (talk • contribs)

Why only one economic perspective of Public Utility?

Murray Rothbard is described as a "leading theoretician of anarcho-capitalism" on his wikipedia page.

A quote from the perspective of this specific economic theory characterizes the information too narrowly for the opening section of this article.

The quote would only be appropriate in a section that details the perspective of multiple economic theorists. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.57.163.62 (talk) 14:01, 1 May 2018 (UTC)

Strangely worded sentences

Greetings Wikipedians! This sentence reads like something mis-translated from another language:Being capital intensive, and so needing continuous inflows of funds brings to a sensitive debt-to-equity ratio that can have meaningful impact also on the company's credit rating, that if deteriorates decreases again the availability of funds. I hope my edit captures what the author was trying to say.

And this one needs some else's attention. It seems to pertain to health care utilities, which I have no knowledge of, but that is not expressly stated. Public utilities must pursue the following objective given the social responsibility their services attribute to them: -Ensuring services are of the highest quality and responsive to the needs and wishes of patients; -Ensuring that health services are effectively targeted so as to improve the health of local populations; -Improving the efficiency of the services so the volume of well-targeted effective services is the widest, given the available... Cordially, BuzzWeiser196 (talk) 10:53, 14 May 2021 (UTC)

Re: the fourth sentence in the lead, which reads: Public utilities are generally so called because there is structurally no room for market competition. One firm can produce at lower a cost and as a consequence hypothetical competitors are priced out of the market. It's supposedly trying to tell us why public utilities are called public utilities. But what it's really explaining is why utilities are a natural monopoly. And there's no inline citation. I propose to replace it with something like the following: Public utilities have historically been considered to be a natural monopoly. This school of thought holds that the most cost-efficient way of doing business is through a single firm because these are capital-intensive businesses with unusually large economies of scale and high fixed costs associated with building and operating the infrastructure, e.g. power plants, telephone lines and water treatment facilities.Citation: Ulbrich, Holley H,. Natural Monopoly in Principles Textbooks: A Pedagogical Note. The Journal of Economic Education. Vol. 22, No. 2 (Spring, 1991), pp. 179-182. Published By: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1182423?seq=1 That journal is peer-reviewed. Cordially, BuzzWeiser196 (talk) 18:18, 15 May 2021 (UTC)

"...ecisions generally involve too high prices and relatively little service..."

Greetings Wikipedians! The following text is muddled and reads like it was written by someone not fully fluent in English: "...ecisions generally involve too high prices and relatively little service compared to competitive conditions..." I am reluctant to re-write it because I cannot be sure what point the editor is trying to make. I can't read the document referenced in the inline citation. It's in Italian and I don't speak Italian. So I deleted the text. If someone who can read Italian can fix it, I would be most grateful. Cordially, BuzzWeiser196 (talk) 18:07, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

Utilitylies..

Im new at this address n need someone to come out n read the meter so rhat i can place the utilities in my name n out of the other name its in now..when can this be done? 71.63.29.6 (talk) 18:58, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Utilities

I just sent out a msg on my issue 71.63.29.6 (talk) 19:02, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Who owns and operates public utilities

what is the answer 103.124.143.161 (talk) 18:05, 10 July 2024 (UTC)