A couple of weeks back the BBC consumers program Watchdog was doing a particular piece, and in response to a company having an 0344 number, the presenter actively suggested viewers use the email instead "since that's local rate". The reference is approximately 24 minutes in at https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bs70xq/watchdog-series-40-episode-3 (will probably only work in UK)

I dropped a complaint to the BBC and got the (entirely expected) brush-off, but they did refer to "the numbers are geographic or local rate".

Complaining about factual inaccuracies on Watchdog these days is evidently a waste of time, but it did get me wondering if there is any webpage or site anywhere that debunks the great "local rate" myth, because it's not the first time I've seen it...