Two organisations working towards the development of standards for wireless charging agreed to merge, in the hope of accelerating the availability and deployment of the technology globally.

The Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) and Power Matters Alliance (PMA) signed a letter of intent for a merger, which should be completed by the middle of the year. A name for the merged entity has yet to be decided.

A major objective of both groups is to boost the economies of scale for wireless power transfer technology. The two organisations have been collaborating since February 2014.

The boards of the two companies include AT&T, Broadcom, Duracell, Flextronics, Intel, Qualcomm, Samsung and Starbucks.

This should ensure a “stable, long-term evolution and management” of the technology, which should encourage mobile operators, retail brands and the consumer electronics industry to invest in it.

The charging technology could be applied to a range of devices, including wearables, smartphones, tablets and laptops.

Ron Resnick, president of PMA said the merger “assures decision-makers throughout the industry of responsible stewardship of these essential contributing technologies”.