It's a matter of fact that every vendor of telco equipment has to provide a lawful-interception interface when doing business at a serious scale (say, enabling services for >10k end-users). That holds true in countries with questionable political systems, but even more so in Central/Western Europe and especially in the US. It's really just how the technology is handled and used.

Regarding conspiracy theories: there's a popular saying in the telco/network industry, going like "Nobody has ever been fired for buying Cisco equipment". It's just a matter of taking personal risks for your CTO.