Correct, this is why HTTPS (and encryption in general over the network) has become so popular. This property of traffic being intercepteable is also present in cable traffic as well, it's not hard to intercept traffic, you just find a tap, plug in a cable and observe, it's not even obviously illegal, there are many legitimate reasons to plug in a cable in a tap in the public, so there's a lot of possible alibis.
I mean, the article is literally about people squirting unencrypted traffic over the bent pipe.
People do this.
You can't assume that the people you pay to handle your traffic are doing it properly. You or I know not to do this, but it looks like we are not running large phone companies.
