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.
We at Sipwise implement VoIP switches at major ISPs in Europe, and the most uncomfortable question, which is ALWAYS asked (mostly just as a side-question, like "Btw, I suppose you support it anyways, so how does your solution work in that regards?") is the one of lawful interception.
There's a specification defined by the PacketCable consortium (http://www.cablelabs.com/packetcable/downloads/specs/PKT-SP-...), and I'd say that almost every major vendor has implemented it in one way or the other in order to be deployed at cable ISPs.
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.