LONDON (Reuters) – British mobile operator Vodafone and its U.S. partner Verizon plan to combine parts of their businesses and share some equipment costs, according to a report in Britain's Sunday Times.

The report said the pair were examining plans to pool parts of their enterprise divisions that serve multi-national clients and that the two companies were considering buying network equipment together.

Vodafone is close to striking a deal to extract a dividend from Verizon Wireless, its U.S. joint venture with Verizon, for the first time since 2005.

Vodafone was not immediately available for comment.