The FCC in America have given regulatory approval to Huawei's Windows Phone 8 handset, the W1. Included in the paperwork was branding for TracFone, so the natural assumption is that the W1 is destined for Net10, one of the smaller US networks. Given the mid to low range specifications of the handset, this makes sense.

Confirmed at CES this year, the W1 has a four inch screen at 800x480 resolution, a 5 mega pixel camera, and a 2000 mAh battery.

It also has just 4GB of internal storage, which is going to cause problems in the long term. Although Windows Phone 7.x could manage comfortably with the lower storage capabilities, my experience with the HTC 8X leads me to think that 4GB with the newer OS is not viable for anything more than very light use of Windows Phone 8.

The Ascend W1 in its 4Afrika guise

We may hear more details on the availability of the W1 during MWC next week, and we'll watch for its availability across the US and in mainland Europe.