How to Fix that Recurring Phantom Voicemail Icon Problem When Using a AOSP ROM

If you're using any AOSP ROM, such as CyanogenMod or MIUI, you may experience an issue where you get a voicemail icon at the notification bar.  You can go click on it to check your voicemail, but the odd thing is that you have NO voicemail!  You clear that icon, but it comes back every time you reboot.

After awhile, it used to bug me like crazy when I was using my Hero and CM6.1.

Some people incorrectly give the advice that using Google Voice will resolve the problem.  Well, they're WRONG.  It doesn't.

The proper (and seemingly ONLY) fix is to do the resolution documented here by user 'jetdr' at the XDA forum.  The short of it is the following:

1. You have to get a non-Android phone and then activate and switch to that phone.
2. Use your landline or someone else's phone to leave yourself a voicemail
3. Call your vmail and delete that vmail you just left
4. Activate your Android Phone again

I used my opportunity of switching to an EVO from my Hero to do this with my old Centro.

My guess is that this is because Sprint uses different voicemail systems for Android and non-Android phones, and if you leave any voicemail undeleted in your old non-Android phone, that activates that vmail icon on your Android phone.

By the way, this MAY cost you an extra $10 a month if you are on a non 4G phone and weren't paying that already.  Sprint had originally charged $10/month extra for 4G phones, but as of about a month ago, they are charging that extra $10 for all "premium data" phones, which means all Android phones.  So even if you just have a Hero with 3G, if you reactivate that phone, you will be paying $10 more.

I think this this is NOT worth doing unless you plan to upgrade to a 4G phone like the Epic or EVO from a 3G one.