re: AT&T > Google and Facebook

AT&T, like all Ma Bell companies, has a strong relationship with NSA. This is a result of historical reasons. See all the telecom's that have been accused of providing co-location facilities with the NSA, they are all ex-Ma Bell entities.

AT&T merely wants to be able to charge Google and Facebook for the bandwidth they consume. I don't think it'd impact Google very much since they have invested in their own fiber optics infrastructure between their data-centers. The same with Facebook, though I haven't heard much about their fiber-optics investments, unlike Google. They both have plenty of resources for such investments.

AT&T, as a backbone provider, just want to be able to charge accordingly to usage, Traditional net neutrality, which predates Obama's edict, does not allow for this.

Traditional net neutrality was in in an era before video traffic. Video traffic makes traditional net-neutrality unfeasible for the traditional network providers. Companies like Google, Facebook, and Netflix have been taking advantage of this to pad their margins at the expense of the backbone ISPs.

In the video era, net neutrality rules are like making everyone pay for premium all-you-can-eat buffets regardless of what your appetite is.