Implementations for something as "innovative" as this are bound to be spotty early on. Is there even pre-existing infrastructure/services/software support in typical networks for stunts like this or was this something they had to build?
Did they need to involve their network infra suppliers? For Turkcell that's fully outsourced to Ericsson; network hardware, services implementation, ops, etc etc; pretty much everything below the customer service/marketing level:
Interesting question. Some Turkish operators provide a premium service that lets users play a message or some music to their callers while their phone is ringing.
That engineer would probably be Greek since Ericsson has outsourced a lot of the dev work on MSC/VLRs there. I remember working on a feature that allowed a user to copy the music they listened while waiting and play it when someone called them.
As for the ethical implication there's none. This exact functionality would be extremely helpful in case of an actual emergency.
It's called "early media" and it's something standard, sometimes used to announce that the call will be charged at a premium rate and giving the caller a chance to hand up before the call begins and they get charged.
Did they need to involve their network infra suppliers? For Turkcell that's fully outsourced to Ericsson; network hardware, services implementation, ops, etc etc; pretty much everything below the customer service/marketing level:
https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/2016/11/turkcell-...
Which means that maybe someone at Ericsson in Sweden ended up implementing this crazy thing some time the past week or so. :/
... makes me think about that mandatory engineering ethics class a long time ago.