Telephone cooperative

A utility cooperative is a type of cooperative that is tasked with the delivery of a public utility such as electricity, water or telecommunications to its members. Profits are either reinvested for infrastructure or distributed to members in the form of "patronage" or "capital credits", which are dividends paid on a member's investment in the cooperative.

Each customer is a member and owner of the business. This means that all members have equal individual authority, unlike investor-owned utilities where the extent of individual authority is governed by the number of shares held. Like cooperatives operating in other sectors, many utility cooperatives conduct their affairs according to a set of ideals based on the Rochdale Principles. Some utility cooperatives respect the seventh principle, Concern for community, through Operation Roundup schemes, whereby members can voluntarily have their bill rounded to the next currency unit (e.g. $55.37 becomes $56), with the difference (e.g. 63¢) distributed to a fund for local charities.

Many such cooperatives exist in the rural United States, and were created by the New Deal to bring electric power and telephone service to rural areas, when the nearest investor-owned utility would not provide service, believing there would be insufficient revenue to justify the capital expenditures required. Many electric cooperatives have banded together to form their own wholesale power cooperatives, often called G&Ts for generation and transmission, to supply their member-owners with electricity.

Many utility cooperatives strive to bring the best service at the lowest possible cost, but often the high cost of maintaining the infrastructure needed to cover large, rural areas without the support of large cities as a rich customer base causes prices to be high. However, a few such co-ops have managed to tap into urban markets (due to growth into previously rural territory served by the co-ops) and have proven to be very cost-effective. More recently established energy co-ops began with national coverage: Co-operative Energy in the UK and in France are examples of consumer cooperatives. Other co-ops have formed to concentrate on the generation of renewable energy, especially wind energy co-operatives.

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