NEW YORK: Sprint Corp will not join the US government’s auction of airwaves set for early 2016, as it has adequate airwaves to currently build out its network and for its future needs, the company said on Saturday.

The US Federal Communications Commission is gearing up to auction off valuable 600 megahertz airwaves that can travel long distances and penetrate buildings, to wireless carriers, which are clamouring for faster speeds for data-guzzling customers.

Sprint will not participate as its current holdings of airwaves are ‘sufficient’ for its ongoing network upgrade effort and to serve customers in the future, it said in a statement, making it the first US carrier to announce it will sit out of the auction.

Investors have been concerned about financial health of Sprint, the number four US wireless carrier based on subscribers, which has struggled to report a profit in recent years. Sprint also skipped the airwaves auction called the ‘AWS-3’ spectrum sale that concluded earlier this year.