No.
Companies don't have a human morality system. Companies exist at the sufferance of their bottom line. As such, anything that increases their net profits is good, anything that decreases their net profits is bad.
When you have a product and you are the only one that can provide that product in a timely manner you have the advantage, because you can dictate the terms of the sale to the consumer. If this means that your product is 'access to the wider world' and part of the agreed upon contract is a data limit over a period of time you'd be an absolute moron not to ram the terms of the contract down your consumers' throats when they exceed that limit, as written down in the contract.
This gives you a good negotiation position for a better deal for you because you can now reasonably point out they need a larger, more expensive access plan, and the consumers know they in fact do need that.
What the company in question did is absolutely the right decision in that moment for the company, forcing a consumer to actually pay for the services they demand. It's just that, well, when you are talking about emergency services in the middle of a week long disaster (or longer) suddenly losing the ability to coordinate effectively, that sort of thing has consequences, potentially lethal consequences. And sure, the CEO of the company or some other properly ranking official could've just told the service desk to push some buttons and make an exception.
But that's not a company decision, that's a people decision. And it would've taken time to push to the appropriate level given how far reaching such an exception would be.
Companies don't have a human morality system. Companies exist at the sufferance of their bottom line. As such, anything that increases their net profits is good, anything that decreases their net profits is bad.
When you have a product and you are the only one that can provide that product in a timely manner you have the advantage, because you can dictate the terms of the sale to the consumer. If this means that your product is 'access to the wider world' and part of the agreed upon contract is a data limit over a period of time you'd be an absolute moron not to ram the terms of the contract down your consumers' throats when they exceed that limit, as written down in the contract.
This gives you a good negotiation position for a better deal for you because you can now reasonably point out they need a larger, more expensive access plan, and the consumers know they in fact do need that.
What the company in question did is absolutely the right decision in that moment for the company, forcing a consumer to actually pay for the services they demand. It's just that, well, when you are talking about emergency services in the middle of a week long disaster (or longer) suddenly losing the ability to coordinate effectively, that sort of thing has consequences, potentially lethal consequences. And sure, the CEO of the company or some other properly ranking official could've just told the service desk to push some buttons and make an exception.
But that's not a company decision, that's a people decision. And it would've taken time to push to the appropriate level given how far reaching such an exception would be.