The natural persons executing the certificate of incorporation shall be residents of the territory in which the principal operations of the cooperative are to be conducted who intend to use telephone service to be furnished by the cooperative. The certificate of incorporation shall be subscribed by at least five such persons and acknowledged by them before an officer authorized by the law of this Commonwealth to take and certify acknowledgments of deeds and conveyances. When so acknowledged the certificate shall be filed in accordance with the provisions of Article 3 (§ 13.1-618 et seq.) of Chapter 9 of Title 13.1, and when so filed the articles of incorporation, or certified copies thereof, shall be received in all the courts of this Commonwealth and elsewhere as prima facie evidence of the facts contained therein, and of the due incorporation of the cooperative. All of the provisions of the Virginia Stock Corporation Act (§ 13.1-601 et seq.) and the Virginia Nonstock Corporation Act (§ 13.1-801 et seq.) insofar as not inconsistent with this chapter are hereby made applicable to such cooperatives, and as soon as the charter is lodged for recordation in the office of the State Corporation Commission, the proposed cooperative described therein, under its designated name, shall be and constitute a body corporate with all of the applicable powers provided for in § 56-49. A cooperative need not have a registered office or a registered agent.