||This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or
discuss these issues on the talk page. ||The examples and
perspective in this article deal primarily with the United
Kingdom and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject.
(May 2011)| A public utility (usually just utility) is an
organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public
service (often also providing a service using that
infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public
control and regulation ranging from local community-based groups
to state-wide government monopolies. (Common arguments in favor
of regulation include the desire to control market power,
facilitate competition, promote investment or system expansion,
or stabilize markets. In general, though, regulation occurs when
the government believes that the operator, left to his own
devices, would behave in a way that is contrary to the
community's best interests.) The term utilities can also refer
to the set of services provided by these organizations c