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.
University, Mississippi is not an official government based city or town but is the official designated name for the area encompassing the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) campus, in Lafayette County, Mississippi within the city of Oxford. Its official United States Postal Service designation is "University, Mississippi 38677".