With Windows 10 Mobile looking a little unsteady—Microsoft buying Nokia was never great news for partner relationships, and the company's recent layoffs and decision to scale back (glass half empty) or focus (glass half full) its phone efforts have raised many questions about the platform's future—it's a rare bit of good news that at least one third party is still planning on building phones with the operating system.

Alcatel OneTouch has built a number of Windows Phone phones in the past. The OneTouch View was a low-end Windows Phone 7.8 device released in late 2012, The OneTouch Pop 2(4) Windows (a Windows version of the Android-using Pop 2) was a low-end Windows Phone 8 device. And at the CTIA Wireless trade show in Las Vegas yesterday, the company confirmed that it would have a Windows 10 Mobile device shipping by the end of the year.

Chances are, it's going to be another low- to mid-range device. Prolific leaker Evan Blass tweeted some specs of an Alcatel OneTouch device called the Fierce XL: Snapdragon 210 processor (quad-core, 1.1GHz), LTE, 5.5 inch 720p screen, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, 2500mAh battery, and a microSD slot.

Speaking at CTIA, Alcatel OneTouch's senior vice president for North America said that the company was "very supportive of the Windows ecosystem." Alcatel's interest and support of Windows has wavered over the years. At IFA last year another Alcatel vice president, Dan Dery, said in an interview that Microsoft had a "big advantage" in tablets and phones because of its integrated platform and the promise of Office. However, the company was reluctant to release further products because it wasn't certain if the low-end success was due to Windows Phone itself or merely the appeal of the Nokia brand name.

Since then the Office attraction has become less compelling—you don't need Windows to get it—and Microsoft can no longer use the Nokia brand name. Nonetheless, Alcatel OneTouch has continued to experiment with the platform. At Mobile World Congress earlier this year it had a prototype handset running a preview release of the operating system. That didn't ship, but some level of interest has clearly continued.