"You published a letter...in which a reader criticised the BBC for using 0845 and 0870 prefixed telephone 'hotlines' following the terrorist attacks of 7 July 2005.  Your readers should be aware that 0845 numbers (about 3p/minute - ie local rate) and 0870 numbers (about 7p/minute - ie national rate) are not the same as 0898 numbers (typicaly £1+/minute).  The letter suggested that the BBC was trying to make scandalous profits from the disaster.  Quite unfair."

Exactly. Quite unfair.
The profit taking is not limited to the disaster, but is applied to all calls to 084 and to 087 numbers.

I agree, totally unfair, 0898 numbers do not exist, and have been renumbered to the 090 range for quite a while now.

Also most companies operating 090 numbers for entertainment openly admit that the extra cost you pay for the call is given back to the company operating the service, and also openly admit that there is an extra cost in the first place, compared to a normal call.

Most companies operating on 0870 numbers deny this, and at best say they have been given a generous donation of a telephone system.