Comment by JimS on The Amanda Knox Test: How an Hour on the Internet Beats a Year in the Courtroom · 2011-06-20T02:34:20.438Z · LW · GW

Measuring cellphone call times down to "3 seconds" is meaningless. Mobile-to-mobile call setup times over the cellular network can easily be 4-5 seconds or more. While the network is trying to find the phone you called guess what ... you hear ringing on your phone even though a connection hasn't been set up. So it wouldn't be unusual for the caller to hear 5-6 seconds of ringing before the called phone starts ringing. 3 seconds of ringing on the called phone could easily translate into 6-9 seconds of ringing on the calling phone.

In the US, I prefer to hang up before the voice mail prompt. It leaves a missed call message and makes it easier for the called party. But when in Italy, better let the phone ring until voice mail just in case the called party died ....