Remote loading Cordova/Ionic App, window.plugins is undefined

In index.html, I include

<script src="cordova.js"></script>, 

but I get window.plugins undefined (e.g. in app.js) if I load my app remotely, in config.xml, like this:

<content src="http://remote.com/index.html" /> 

Any ideas on how to fix this?

I've tried waiting on a timer. window.plugins remains undefined.

This happens at least on Android (all versions I've tried included 4.2/4.3/4.4)

Cordova 4.0.0 Ionic 1.2.8