Surely 'though, if the originating telephone company (who charges the caller) has to pay more to the terminating phone company to deliver an 0870 call, then it's not unreasonable to recover that difference from the caller (from the Originating phone companies point of view anyway, & especially if it has no choice but to deliver the call), but any more than that is profiteering.
Exactly.
It is not the originating phone companies fault, that you wish to call a non standard number, however if more originating operators spoke out, and actually referred to them as "non standard" phone numbers, or even "premium rate" numbers, which is what they are, instead of hiding their costs in the small print, the public might understand a bit more. We already accept that 090 numbers a premium rate and many people object to calling them.
However many originating operators do have a vested interest in keeping the 0870 scam going. Some of those companies have 0870 call centres for their own customers to call on their call centre. Some companies act as an originating operator, but also as terminating operator. Some mobile companies who include landline calls in inclusive minutes, charge 40p per minute for 0870 calls, which is 8 about times their cost.
Another thing that hasn't been mentioned yet, is that 0870 calls cost less during the evenings and weekends, and the originating operator pays something like 2p per minute in the evening and 1p at the weekend!!
This makes 40p per minute for an off peak call even worse than before!!