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.
Mountain Home, Tennessee, zip code 37684, is a separate postal zone consisting of the grounds of the Mountain Home VA hospital and Mountain Home National Cemetery, which also includes classrooms and administrative buildings of the medical and pharmacy school of East Tennessee State University. It is entirely contained inside the city of Johnson City, Tennessee.