The feds changed it to where it was only illegal if being done to defraud (in other words intent). Most people still only know of the original law. It's still not perfect. States on the other hand (Missouri for one), doesn't make any distinction based on intent and consider it a crime for any reason, but it's not like a cop is going to come up and verify your phone. In either case it could come down to how good is your lawyer and it's only illegal if you get caught.
I have heard of one guy who has two phones on VM with the same numbers. He does it so he can have them at each end of his house, I don't know why, but that was his reasoning, and he has the impression they don't seem to care. I don't think they are paying much attention really because the economics of it changed.
Back when cloning was popular, it made sense, service was expensive! You buy a phone for $300 and get 3 months (or more) of free service, but you couldn't receive calls. After 3 months you simply paid the guy a smaller fee and he would re-flash your phone and you got 3 more months (or more), again for a fraction of normal cell service. These days it's reversed, the flashing costs more (and is more difficult) than 3 months of service on VM, Boost, T-Mobile, etc.. and you still can't receive calls and chances are it wouldn't even last a month.
The Epic was a news post saying one of them would get it, but that was as far as it went. There wasn't a lot of specifics. It's still early. I would almost bet that it will end up on Boost as a keyboard option to sit alongside the Optimus Black. Though I guess at this point it could also sit alongside the One V. Then again, they could be wrong.
Boost is the exact same coverage as VM, only slightly better data speeds.
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