Running a monopoly utility is surely more closely akin to baseball's way of thinking than running a worldwide video corporation.

Persuading Singapore's monopoly utility at the time, Singapore Power, to invest in it would require a big incentive: a guaranteed market.

Instead, the agency has largely left it to private companies to pry open the $250 billion electricity industry, which has historically been controlled by monopoly utilities and state officials.

A. On a civics book level, our business is to regulate a variety of monopoly utilities, specifically gas, electric, water, cable and telephone.

The enormous and excessive rates charged by monopoly utilities are the largest drag on local economies.

In opposing what you consider "subsidies for electricity," you support a special privilege for monopoly utilities.

And contrary to myth, even the great infrastructure companies of the past - electricity, phone service and railroads - experienced tremendous rivalry before governments turned them into monopoly "utilities."

"The monopoly utility has a big advantage over any competitor," said Ms. Peretz.

The companies raise a contention that goes to the heart of the longstanding bargain between monopoly utilities and the public.

They were monopoly utilities, supplying a necessity of modern life.