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.
Fanshawe is a town in Latimer and Le Flore counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 384. The Le Flore County portion of Fanshawe is part of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area.