Over the recent years, video conferencing has found an unseen summit of popularity and acceptability across the world, as more and more multinationals opt for video conferencing in a move to reduce carbon footprint and cut their cost amidst economic slump.

According to technology consultancy Frost & Sullivan, the worldwide videoconferencing systems and services market, which touched $1.63 billion in 2007, is expected to grow to $4.2 billion by 2012.

TNT, in an attempt to cut down on carbon dioxide emissions has called for a program called Planet Me. Planet Me is a drive to reduce business travel and use videoconferences instead and it estimates the CO2 savings from videoconferencing alone to be 2.6 kilotons a year for the next four years, or a total of 10.5 kilotons.

There are few companies like Norwegian videoconferencing equipment maker Tandberg who are striking gold from the business. With dual headquarters in Oslo and New York, leads the industry in revenue with 40% of the global videoconferencing market, says Frost & Sullivan.

The U.S.''s Polycom (PLCM) is market leader in number of units shipped. Together, Tandberg and Polycom control about 70% of the market for videoconferencing devices and infrastructure.

Videoconferencing technology, which has been around for almost 20 years, has now improved a lot in terms of video quality and voice synchronization.