Public utilities provide electric, gas, water or telephone service to customers in a specified area. Utilities have a duty to provide safe and adequate service on reasonable terms to anyone who lives within the service area on without discriminating between customers. Because most utilities operate in near monopolistic conditions, they can be heavily regulated by local, state, and federal authorities. Generally, the local and state agencies are called Public Service Commissions (PSC) or Public Utility Commissions (PUC). Municipal Utilities and Rural Electric Cooperatives may be unregulated though.
Brandon is a census-designated place (CDP) in Hillsborough County, Florida, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the CDP had a total population of 77,895; according to the American Fact Sheet, the community had a population in 2007 of 90,470, which is an increase of 16.1% or 12,575 people.