Hi Fabian,
I remember wondering this same thing;
Typically, three times the keepalive period is required for a phone to discover that its connection to Cisco CallManager has failed. The default keepalive period is 30 seconds.If a Cisco IP phone has multiple Cisco CallManagers in its CallManager list, it progresses through its list of secondary and tertiary Cisco CallManagers.
From this good doc (provided kindly by Ajaz);
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/iosswrel/ps1839/products_feature_guide_chapter09186a0080110b97.html#wp1322470
Hope this helps!
Rob