A disclosed service management system communicates via wide area network (WAN) (99) with gateway devices (10) at various user premises, to remotely manage delivery of application services and/or features thereof by the gateway device(s), based on service subscriptions of customers associated with the gateway devices. In the examples, a subscription manager (73) provides information through the WAN identifying the applications services or features to be enabled, to each respective gateway device. Also, a service manager (75), controlled by the subscription manager, distributes service specific configuration data to logic implementing server functionality for the application services in the gateway devices, responsive to requests from the gateway devices. The system also includes a gateway device updater (51), responsive to requests received from the gateway devices, for downloading service logic modules for implementing application services or service features to the gateway devices, via the wide area network, for application services or features identified by the service manager.