The two ways mentioned in the article for how they can still do it are:

1) Ask the telco nicely.

2) MITM with things like stingray.

#1 can be solved by telcos starting to say no, which might be easier to do now that you can blame it on economic fallout (e.g. Verizon losing the Germany contract). #2 will likely be solved by a successful court challenge by the ACLU.

Not hopeless, in my opinion.