Public utility monopolies

The electricity mdustiy is m the midst of a transition from a vertically integrated and regulated monopoly to an entity in a competitive market where retail customers choose the suppliers of their electricity. The change started in 1978, when the Public Utility Regulatoiy Act (PURPA) made it possible for nonutility power generators to enter the wholesale market. 

Public Utility An enterprise providing essential public services, such as electric, gas, telephone, water and sewer services, under legally established monopoly conditions. 

Restructuring - The process of changing the structure of the electric power industry from one of guaranteed monopoly over service territories, as established by the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, to one of open competition between power suppliers for customers in any area. 

Mobile phone networks in South Asia have adopted technology designed originally for industrialised countries. Some of the choices seem to have provided critical differentiating factors that enabled these privately owned utilities to become commercial successes in developing countries, in contrast to the publicly owned landline monopolies they have displaced. These factors include ... 

U.S.C. 103 (2002). The basic quid pro quo contemplated by the federal Constitution and Congress for granting a patent monopoly is the benefit derived by the public from an invention with substantial utility. Brenner v. Manson, 383 US 519 (1966). 

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