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.
Sophia is a small unincorporated area in central Randolph County in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is located along U.S. Highway 311, just northwest of the route's intersection of with I-73/I-74/US 220 and southeast of Archdale, North Carolina. It is the location of WGHP-TV's (Fox 8) television transmitter tower. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Sophia citizens protested the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) on its plan to route I-74 through the center of town, essentially removing the community from existence. After a hearing with locals, the NCDOT decided to shift the planned corridor about 1 mile to the north.