Meh. You can indeed argue that the odus should not be on private commercial organisations, or indeed wealthy individuals, to be responding to a crisis, but the reality is simply that government simply cannot afford it by itself. Its an extreme comparison, but look at the World Wars - companies were enlisted to produce was was required for the national war effort, civilian factories were repurposed into military ones.
It is an extreme comparison, but we're not anywhere near a world war style scenario. People's lives aren't on hold for years and years, this is a short term (by war time scales) scenario. There are some commercial organisations that can do something to help, using knowledge, expertise and capability - i don't see any problem with this, and certainly should be applauded but society issues shouldn't sit at their door to fix. However this is just a convenient smoke screen for government and their failings of being prepared for a scenario like this, both in terms of physical supplies and the structure to support it.
As mentioned, the current initiatives to me smell a bit like "PR stunt" rather than "genuine effort to improve the situation". The phone companies could [for instance] offer discounts on line rental for key workers, or offer contract freezes/months free for those who have been made unemployed due to the pandemic. Do they have to? No. Do they stand to gain from it? Not financially, although an argument could be made for reputational value. As someone who worked for Vodafone for 5 years - giving away some free data is largely meaningless and costs the company pretty much nothing.
Having sold into Vodafone for 7 years and knowing them intimately, the data element is an easy one for them to give away but actually will help people. Giving away discount as a notional gesture is a bit hollow for me, they weren't doing it before - so why now? What defines a key worker? The industry i work in now classes some people in our industry as a key worker which in reality is laughable. It doesn't necessarily help the hardest hit or the most needy, but as a gesture i can see why people assume that giving money away is the right thing to do.
The commercial reality is that businesses up and down the chain have challenges of money coming in to keep the business afloat (Vodafone is a wrong example here), but for some businesses the pitch fork nature of offering discount isn't going to help them keep their business solvent once restrictions are lifted. There's certainly a bandwagon & if i speak to my other half who works for the NHS, they would rather have the tools to do the job than some temporary and notional £10 off their phone contract.