It shall be the duty of the Alabama Public Service Commission to encourage the improvement and expansion of existing rural telephone facilities and the construction and operation of such additional facilities as are required to assure availability of adequate rural telephone service to the widest practicable number of rural users of such service, and to such ends the commission shall confer and advise with, and keep its official records open to inspection by, any interested person.
Ala. Code § 37-6-47 (1975)