This article leaves a lot to be desired. No perspective from a security expert on how law enforcement backdoors are also backdoors for others. Mention of non-existent end-to-end encryption for Gmail and Yahoo email (might be referring to the end-to-end project, but that's not even close to done). They probably meant to say server-to-server email communications. Also refer to Silent Circle as "in development." Finally, the title demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the past year and a half of disclosures. This is Verizon doing what Verizon does: find something they can charge extra for and slap together a poorly thought out and inadequately engineered app for it.
Legally all the telecoms have to provide a "backdoor" for law enforcement snooping, in theory when they have a warrant, which as it turns out is all to easy to get (e.g. FISA) see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calea which explains the law (sort of).
