ISPs here do not upgrade customers automatically unless they pay which means many users stay on very slow internet for a long time.

But still undersubscribed, that's why you get a better connection (beyond the tech advancements)

Then (most respectfully) don't :) That area in central Italy is mountainous, not particularly significant from an industrial perspective, and hence poorly covered by wireless data networks, whereas ADSL is pretty ubiquitous.

The hams in my area are routinely involved with disasters big and small. They've responded quickly in disasters with volunteer patrols and stations. They routinely help out at events like marathons, fairs, and more. When a fire took down a place's cell towers, they were there to facilitate communication. When the 911 call system went offline, they were around the city to help out (i.e., could place direct emergency calls for folks)

Short range, "walkie-talkie" stuff is fine but when you move up to the regional level, it's going to be a super bottleneck. Unfortunately, the majority of hams seem to be content to just do contesting using SSB or CW. There needs to be a huge, directed push to innovate here.

Towers can have battery backup, and even in a wide-scale disaster, chances are one of them would maintain an internet connection.

Keep in mind that area isn't covered by LTE yet, and probably hasn't a robust mobile network like in the big cities.

The earthquake affected the infrastructure, and being a mountain area it's hard to get close enough to fix it.

There's a tradeoff between sending helicopters to save people vs repairing the telco infra.

Well, I'm sure for the sake of victims of a natural disaster, it might be prudent to wade through that mess if there's a chance it'll help. Who knows, the users might learn a thing or two.

I don't see why mobile phone operators couldn't offer free mobile data access in addition to this measure.