A group of black elected officials are appealing to Congress and President Obama to ensure that the FCC's national broadband plan and its network neutrality rules do not further expand the digital divide. In a letter Thursday to key congressional leaders and Obama, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators and other groups called on Congress to hold hearings to provide oversight of the FCC's proceedings on these issues and to ensure they make the group's two principles a priority. These include making universal adoption the top priority of the nation's broadband policy instead of Internet regulation and ensuring the FCC does not adopt network neutrality rules that make the digital divide worse.

"In a digital economy, access to broadband spells the difference between first- and second-class citizenship," according to the letter also signed by the National Conference of Black Mayors, National Association of Black County Officials and the National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women. They noted that while nearly two-thirds of all adult Americans report having broadband Internet access at home, the rates for minorities are much lower.

The groups said they support net neutrality supporters' goal of ensuring that broadband providers cannot discriminate against legal content. "Nonetheless, much of the net neutrality debate has more to do with providing high-end users (such as the peer-to-peer traffickers who account for 20 percent of Internet use) with access to large amounts of bandwidth at the expense of everyday users," they wrote. "Thus we are concerned that unmanaged networks would leave the underserved with increased costs and diminished service."

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski proposed in September that voluntary net neutrality guidelines be expanded to bar network operators from engaging in discriminatory behavior, require more disclosure about network management practices and subject violators to stepped up enforcement.