[NTLUG:Discuss] Building Android for MT6582?

[Ralph Green]

Howdy,
  I just found that Cyanogenmod is supporting it's first modestly
priced set of phones.  Late last year, google launched a program
called Android One to bring phones to the next 5 billion people.  That
was their marketing speak, and it means they are supporting a standard
design based on the commodity chip from MediaTek called the
MT6582(quad core, 1.3 GHz A7 arm).  Cyanogenmod soon after announced
they support it.  Cyanogenmod has CM11 available now and cm12 is in
the works(12.1, actually).  This leads me to several questions.

1. Is anyone on this list working with an Android One device?  I did
not find any US suppliers.

2, I see other MT6582 based phones from $70 on amazon.  Can anyone
comment knowingly on how likely an Adroid One rom would be to work on
one of these phones?

3. I mention cyanogenmod because they document their supported phones
better than other phone distros I have found.  I want to be able to
build my own custom ROM.  Is there another distro I should be looking
at?  I know about replicant, but I have not ever found a phone they
support at a reasonable price.

 I am debating buying a cheap MT6582 based device if I am likely to be
able to build a working ROM.  I sure don't want to run the software
that would come with such a phone from the factory.
Thanks,
Ralph