Vonage today announced that it has signed a deal with Viseon to offer the Dallas-based company’s videophone to subscribers wanting Vonage service.

Targeting both consumers and small businesses, the collaboration is the fist time that Vonage has stepped into the video market. Using Viseon’s device, users can make video calls to anyone, though initially the service will be limited to calling among Vonage users with the device.

"Right now its’ just for Vonage to Vonage customers," said a Vonage spokeswoman. "Later on if these devices really take off we may do a peering with other providers. It just depends on how big the market is going to get."

The phones, which still are in prototype stage, will be distributed through Vonage’s existing sales channel including retail outlets like BestBuy.

Like all of Vonage’s customer premise equipment, the Viseon phone assumes the existence of a broadband connection. The phone, which comes with a list price of $599, is H.323 or SIP compliant and delivers up to 30 frames per second video using anywhere from 128 kb/s to 512 kb/s of capacity.