Back in February we noted that AT&T, the company that really started the network neutrality debate to begin with, had come up with yet another awful new idea: charging app makers a fee if they wanted to reach consumers without hitting their usage caps. While AT&T presented the idea as akin to a 1-800 number for data or "free shipping," what it actually is a troll toll imposed by AT&T allowing them to rake in new cash -- and impose their power on a content ecosystem that operates better with AT&T out of the way.

To further sell his new troll toll, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told attendees of a recent investor conference that content developers are actually asking to pay AT&T a completely arbitrary and unnecessary fee:Stephenson fails to specify which content companies are begging to throw their money in the toilet. If any companies are on board, it's likely because, like Netflix was early on, they're completely oblivious about the potential for anti-competitive abuse inherent in usage caps and overages. That kind of stupidity is dangerous, given than once some content companies sign up for such a plan, AT&T hopes others will be forced to join in just to keep pace.

In reality, AT&T's layering their network with completely arbitrary usage caps and overages untied for network or financial realities, and now wants to charge content companies a completely unnecessary toll to bypass them. The result is content development costs that get passed on to consumers, with AT&T picking application winners and losers based on who ponies up the most cash.

Despite the layers of nonsense added on to the discussion over the years, the network neutrality debate has always been about stopping companies like AT&T from imposing completely unnecessary fees on top of already expensive connectivity charges. AT&T wants somebody else to pay for their own network upgrades, and any content companies or consumers who think this idea ends well for anybody (other than AT&T) clearly doesn't know how AT&T operates.