I ended up with something like
<preference name="SplashScreen" value="screen"/>
<preference name="ShowSplashScreenSpinner" value="true"/>
<preference name="AutoHideSplashScreen" value="false"/>
<preference name="SplashScreenDelay" value="150000"/>
<preference name="android-targetSdkVersion" value="20"/>
<feature name="SplashScreen">
<param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.splashscreen.SplashScreen"/>
<param name="onload" value="true"/>
</feature>
and I close the splashscreen
$cordovaSplashscreen.hide();