Surely, another point to be considered if we want to look at the "True Cost" of these premium phone calls is the cost that business itself has to bear? I seem to recall seeing a couple of posts from business people on this site, complaining of their extraordinarily high phone bills, and basically blaming the cost of phoning 0870 / 0845 / 0871 / 0844 numbers - and often being left in a queue. As in all business costs, if the business is forced to pay, it will, in turn, pass this cost on to the end consumer.
We all know that Britain is known overseas as 'Treasure Island' for the extortionate cost of so many items and services. There appear to be a host of reasons for this, but if businesses are forced to pay far, far more for telephone calls than they would in a truly deregulated and non-NGN environment, surely it must add to the end effect?
Even those businesses who think they are being very clever in accepting the telco's 30 pieces of silver, and hence becoming part of the problem, are then themselves hoisted by their own petard!!
The problem seems to me to be that in the not too distant future, every UK business will feel obliged to have a NGN, if only just to attempt to defray the extraordinary cost of doing business on the telephone in 'Rip-Off UK'. It's a never ending vicious spiral - and your totally ineffective regulator appears to condone it!