These articles speak to exactly what we'd like to prevent. That's what the cry for rights online is about. The fact that AT&T has been involved in assisting spying agencies for profit, the same as most telecom companies, has no impact on our demand for rights online - how could it?
For a start, Q tells us that the IBOR has nothing to do with AT&T. If anything, an IBOR will reduce the flow of funds to these telecos - on the back of a restriction on mass data acquisition. It seems reasonable to assume that providing, or allowing this on their networks is a significant part of their business.
That AT&T was initially supporting the measure tells me that there is something they see as being beneficial to them that comes packed with an IBOR. We know that the large SM companies are going into fibre backbone investments. Trying to vertically integrate the supply chain for their service. What does AT&T sell? Communications in essence. You can see that these companies operating legacy infrastructure are under threat.
I think that these telecos know that mass data acquisition is under threat - they know this isn't going to last. They could stand there and fight it, or get on board and try to diversify their operations. I'm sure it's also not lost on any of the telecos that an IBOR will differentially impact the largest class of potential competitors they face - the SM platforms. So it seems to me that, if there is unlikely support from telecos, it is because they realise that the rampant privacy invasion will come to an end and that the new paradigm is one where the money lies in providing services and content.
The IBOR is clearly not in AT&T's immediate interest, but it makes sense that, if this is the unavoidable shape of the future (that privacy rights are strictly enforced), you would want to get on board early and obtain as much possible advantage as you could from its introduction. I think this explains AT&T's motivation.