I've been given a second Optimus V - questions about activation and use.

[yaconsult]

My current phone is an Optimus V running mirage as I'm grandfathered on the $24.95/month plan.

A friend has dumped his OV for a galaxy on another provider and given me his old OV, so now I have a second one. I figured it would make a good spare phone in case mine dies, gets lost, etc.

This second phone has the stock software installed, is not rooted and the Virgin account it was used on has been closed. My question is what I can and can't do with a second OV? In reading the forums, it seems that future activation is an possible issue? The guides indicate that a phone should be activated before it is rooted and a new rom is installed?

I had planned to root it, install a new rom, and use it only on wifi-only to perhaps experiment with some new or different roms. Will this work? What are the potential roadblocks or issues?

Will I be able to use a second phone on wifi only?

If I lose or break my original phone, will I be able to switch to this second OV if it's already been rooted and romed?

Is there anything I should save/preserve/do before installing a new rom, like the activation app or other files/data from the unmodified phone?

If I lost my current OV and had already installed mirage on the second phone, would I be able to easily activate it at that point? Is there anything I need to do in advance to prepare for being able to switch to the second phone? I guess it's not as simple as just calling them and giving them the new MEID?

Thanks for any tips/advice! The OV is my first android phone and I have no experience with swapping smartphones on an account. I'm comfortable with the process of rooting the phone and installing a recovery and new rom so I suppose I could reinstall a copy of the original rom if I needed to in order to activate it in the future. I'll do a full nandroid backup as soon as I install the recovery.

 

[bigsupersquid]

My current phone is an Optimus V running mirage as I'm grandfathered on the $24.95/month plan.

A friend has dumped his OV for a galaxy on another provider and given me his old OV, so now I have a second one. I figured it would make a good spare phone in case mine dies, gets lost, etc.

This second phone has the stock software installed, is not rooted and the Virgin account it was used on has been closed. My question is what I can and can't do with a second OV? In reading the forums, it seems that future activation is an possible issue? The guides indicate that a phone should be activated before it is rooted and a new rom is installed?

If you leave the stock ROM on it until it's activated, rooting won't matter. You can also use Leslieann's Froyo Harmonia or Rhode utility ROM to activate.

I had planned to root it, install a new rom, and use it only on wifi-only to perhaps experiment with some new or different roms. Will this work? What are the potential roadblocks or issues?

That should work just fine.

Will I be able to use a second phone on wifi only?

yes

If I lose or break my original phone, will I be able to switch to this second OV if it's already been rooted and romed?

yes, but you'll lose your grandfathered plan if you switch phones. Again, you'll have to install Froyo Harmonia, or Rhode, to activate unless you use a stock backup for the same purpose.

Is there anything I should save/preserve/do before installing a new rom, like the activation app or other files/data from the unmodified phone?

always do a backup in a custom recovery before messing with another ROM. Also called a nandroid backup. Installing a custom recovery is usually the first step after rooting.

If I lost my current OV and had already installed mirage on the second phone, would I be able to easily activate it at that point? Is there anything I need to do in advance to prepare for being able to switch to the second phone? I guess it's not as simple as just calling them and giving them the new MEID?

yes. Backup your mirage in recovery, install one of the aforementioned ROMs from Leslieann or your stock backup (good idea to back up your stock ROM after installing custom recovery) then call in the MEID and activate following their instructions.

good luck.

 

[yaconsult]

yes, but you'll lose your grandfathered plan if you switch phones..

Thank you for your reply. But my understanding of switching phones is that you can switch to another phone of the same model or any other model on their list that virgin produced of phones that were sold up until a particular cutoff date.

Here's a thread about it from Howard Forums: Need to replace phone on VM grandfathered $25 Beyond Talk Plan

 

[bigsupersquid]

I actually hope you're right.
I came to my conclusion after carefully reading VM's new TOS.

 

[fortyquid]

I lost my device, and they told me that I could keep my plan with an exact replacement.
I had been working on a scaffold last Friday when a storm came in fast and we all ran around like crazy in the rain for an hour trying to get the house walls closed up jumping from roof to scaffold and back thirty feet in the air over a pile of rock and cellulose insulation?the phone was gone by the time I got out to my truck, and I assumed the worst. So I ordered another Opt V from Ebay, called VM, and they said I could keep my grandfathered plan, as the replacement was the same model as the original device.
(Found my lost device yesterday lying face-up in a puddle. Overnight in a bowl of rice, and everything works except the battery.)

 

[yaconsult]

Nice! Thanks for the confirmation. It certainly makes sense that they would allow it, but it's all policy, isn't it?

I got my friend's OV in the mail last week, rooted it, and installed a custom recovery. For now, I'm gonna keep it as a backup phone. I took screen shots of all of the about phone screens to have all the numbers available.

I made a recovery backup of the froyo install it came with, which I guess I will need if I ever have to activate it. I'm presuming that the activation app it came with won't work if installed on a CM rom? Has anyone tried? Is it possible to call them, give them all the phones ID numbers and have it activated?

What are you going to do with YOUR spare OV???

I also found the policy on the virgin site - the applicable section from Learn about new Beyond Talk device upgrade rules is:

What if lose my smartphone after May 27, 2012 and I have to replace it?
As long as you?re replacing it with a phone that was launched prior to May 1, 2012, you will not have to switch plans. However, if you upgrade to a phone that was launched after May 1, you will need to switch to the $35, $45, or $55 Beyond Talk plan.

*The following smartphones launched before May 1, 2012 and are therefore not subject to the new device upgrade rules at this time: VentureTM, LG ? OptimusTM Slider, HTC ? Wildfire STM, Motorola TriumphTM, LG ? Optimus VTM, Blackberry ? CurveTM 8530.​