In summary We fought to create today’s utility structure where companies providing public necessities must offer universal service at affordable rates. By Josh Lappen Josh Lappen is a PhD student at Oxford University, where he studies the politics of electricity in Southern California, joshua.lappen@history.ox.ac.uk. Ranjitha Shivaram, Special to CalMatters Ranjitha Shivaram is a PhD student at Stanford University, where she studies the decarbonization of cities, ranjshiv@stanford.edu. In much of the U.S., the digital divide separates some city-dwellers with access to fast and reliable internet service from rural communities that lack it.