By Pamela Perez, CommsDay

In the midst of the current global economic turmoil, tele-conferencing has become a more practical medium to do business in a bid to cut international travel costs, according to research conducted last month by IDC Asia-Pacific.

An analyst at IDC, Kenneth Liew said, “The slowdown will actually affect the financial institutions, which are usually the key customers for the telcos, so that area might slow down slightly. But there are other new areas that are promising, like tele-conferencing and video-conferencing service.”

The study revealed that 10% of the businesses surveyed hoped to install video or teleconferencing facilities in 2009. In addition, the survey showed that a cut back of 10 to 20 percent in travelling can actually equal the cost of setting up a video or tele-conferencing system within a year, reported Channel News Asia.

“SingTel is actually providing services with high-definition conferencing. Such companies (telcos) have actually seen a growth as companies try to cut costs and be more cost efficient,” said Liew. Moreover, StarHub and SingTel have already seen a 20% jump in video and teleconferencing usage by customers.