Verizon is looking into using asset-backed receivable financing as a means to secure cash upfront for the payments customers owe on equipment installment plans (EIPs).

Speaking at an investor conference on Tuesday, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said the move would essentially see banks give Verizon cash in exchange for the receivables it’s expecting from customers with EIPs.

“When we sold an EIP or an installment sale to our customers, say it was $700, we turned around and the banks prefunded that receivable on a securitization basis, and we called that ‘off balance sheet financing’ because the receivable in essence came off our books and actually was put on the bank books,” Shammo explained.

Shammo said the move has the potential to bring both efficiency and lower cost of capital benefits to the company.

According to Shammo, though, many U.S. banks are not inclined to support such a scheme, leaving the carrier to strike up discussions with foreign banks.

Shammo said Verizon is still “working through the mechanics” of how asset-backed securities would work and how rating agencies would view the plan as the company seeks to climb back to an A rating.

Verizon is expecting that half of its customers will be on installment pricing by the middle of this year, Shammo said, and is looking toward the generation of positive service revenue again by the end of 2017.

Shammo said more information on the securities subject would likely be available either at the end of the first quarter or in the second quarter of this year.

The bid to generate cash-on-hand comes just ahead of the start of the FCC’s auction of wireless spectrum at the end of March. In last year’s AWS-3 auction, Verizon spent more than $10 billion. The company is expected to spend more than $6 billion this time around, and will need funds readily available to turn around a quick payment to the FCC.

Also during Tuesday’s conference, Shammo again said Verizon will not chase every offer in the market and reiterated that the company is not currently considering an unlimited data plan along the lines of what is offered by its tier-1 competitors.

“We are steady as she goes and we’re not going to respond to everything in the marketplace if we don’t think that we need to respond to it,” Shammo said. “Some of these promos you see out there, they may generate growth but they’re certainly not generating cash…I’ve been pretty public saying the unlimited model does not work in an LTE environment.”