Why are calls taxed by the second only after the first minute?

Romania’s mobile telephony operators will further tax the first minute of a call in its entirety, irrespective of the number of seconds the call actually includes, even though, starting July 1, mobile phone calls abroad are taxed starting with the first 30 seconds when calling and after the first second when receiving a call. “Operators will not renounce this practice because they want to offset the costs related to the initiation of a call and because there are no rules against this,” explains ANCOM (The National Communications Management and Regulating Authority). At the level of the EU, the European Commission forces operators, starting July, to halve this minute that is automatically included in bills, but only for roaming. Still, why aren’t the 30 seconds also given up? ANCOM officials say the automatic taxation of the first minute, even for calls of several seconds, covers call initiation costs. All the four mobile telephony operators, Orange, Vodafone, Cosmote and Telemobil (Zapp) use taxation by the second after the first minute. There are no data on the profits operators generate from this type of taxation.