Free Press released Dismantling Digital Deregulation: Toward a National Broadband Strategy, a comprehensive, data-driven analysis of the failed policies at the root of America’s broadband decline.

… The report measures the FCC’s broadband policies over the past eight years against the goals of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 — a blueprint for promoting competition, openness and access.

…    * Develop a data-driven standard to identify local areas where broadband providers are abusing their market power, and use the tools in the 1996 Act to promote competition.

…Analysis of the impact of the FCC’s decisions demonstrates that eliminating open access did not accelerate U.S. broadband deployment, as industry proponents claimed it would, but it did virtually wipe out third-party broadband competition.

… The new report is included in Changing Media: Public Interest Policies for the Digital Age, a book that will be released at the Free Press Summit on May 14.