This is why you must always resist government overtures to impose surveillance programs: You can never get rid of them. Despite expiration of the enabling legislation, the clear fourth amendment issues, and the lack of any productive results, the FISA court ruled that the NSA could resume collecting it.
The ruling is meant as a stopgap to cover the period before the new law—where the metadata is held by the carriers and requires a warrant to access—takes effect but nonetheless has no statutory authorization. The ruling could be appealed, I suppose, but the issue will be moot before it ever gets heard. Once a surveillance program is in place, the government will resist any efforts to end it. They’ll trot out the usual four horsemen and scare tactics to convince Congress and the citizenry that it’s absolutely necessary and that disaster will result without it.