The merger has been approved by the boards of both bodies and, subject to member approval, they will completed by 1 September 2006

ACIF CEO, Anne Hurley, will become CEO of the new body and ACIF's main role, the development of the documentary outputs – industry codes and technical standards – which have regulatory status under the Telecommunications Act 1997 - will continue. The Alternative Dispute Resolution process set up by Span to solve disputes between parties within the industry, will also be provided by the new Alliance.

ACIF was created after the introduction of the 1997 Telecommunications Act which saw the Government exit many industry regulatory responsibilities, particularly the development of technical standards, and leave industry with the responsibility for developing these.

SPAN started life in 1993 as the Service Providers Action Network - a strong lobby group whose main focus was issues with Telstra's market dominance. Following the 1997 Act which opened the marker to full competition it largely abandoned this role, changed its and became more a forum for general industry discussion.

It's former role was largely taken up a new organisation: the Competitive Carriers' Coalition.

In a letter sent to members, ACIF spelt out the objectives of the merger as being "to bring together the services and outputs of each organisation into one entity - so that the delivery of the services and outputs of one can be enhanced by leveraging off the services and outputs of the other; to form one entity whose membership will benefit from the particular strengths and unique values which each organisation brings [and] form one entity with a membership which is more widely representative of the industry than the individual organisations; to form one entity which is able to present a representative voice on industry issues and in policy debate and development; to form one entity with a capability and voice that will be a catalyst for the participation by all industry participants."

Span board member Dennis Muscat, CEO of Pacific Internet, said Span had approached ACIF with the idea following a strategy meeting late last year, and after much discussion the board had been unanimous in voting for the move.

A key driver for the mergers is the belief that the evolution of next generation networks and convergence - between fixed and mobile networks and services and between content and carriage, communications and broadcasting - will in the years to come be major issues requiring strong leadership from the industry and a great deal of collaboration between all players.

Network interconnection in the NGN era will be complex but essential. An industry initiative set up a decade ago to deal with the, technically an commercially much more simple, issue of telephony network interconnect failed spectacularly. But ACIF CEO Hurley believes it provides a basis for what is needed in the NGN era

Writing in industry newsletter Exchange earlier this year, she said:

"Access to infrastructure, access to applications, access to content and access to networks - are among the most pressing issues facing us in the future. They will have to be resolved, and resolved with a minimum of bureaucratic intervention if we are to obtain the maximum benefits of the convergence era.

"The mechanisms and structures for achieving this will require faster, more flexible solutions than those currently employed. The NGN world will be too fast-paced to rely on a framework built on codes and standards. So we will need to rethink the way we do things as we develop our structures and strategies for the future.

"Certainly the industry needs to take the lead in this process because it is setting the agenda and the timeframes for the adoption of the new technologies. The industry understands the operational, technical and commercial issues better than anyone else."