1. An application gateway for operation at a user premises to provide a service to at least one of a user and one or more endpoint devices associated with the application gateway, the application gateway comprising: a first interface for enabling bi-directional communication within the user premises with an associated endpoint device; a second interface for enabling bi-directional communications with the associated endpoint device via a wide area network, and for enabling at least some bi-directional communications via the wide area network with a service management center and an application service provider located externally to the user premises; access to an application service enforcement manager controlled by the application service provider through the service management center and configured to provide policy and usage rules associated with an application service provided by the application service provider, wherein the application service provider through the service management center provides the policy and usage rules associated with the applications service to the application gateway, wherein the application gateway enables authentication, authorization, configuration, or service use of endpoint devices, based upon policy and usage rules received from the service management center; an application gateway programming controlled remotely by the application service provider through the service management center and configured to execute the application service provided from the application service provider, wherein the application gateway programming executes the application service at the user premises while logically positioned on a user premises side of network demarcation forming an edge of the wide area network at a user premises and independent of application services executing on the application service provider's network, wherein upon receiving a request to execute the application service on the application gateway programming at the user premises, the application service logic manager communicates with the application service enforcement manager to verify that the request conforms with the policy and usage rules associated with the application service in order to authorize execution of the application service on the application gateway; a processor device coupled to the interfaces; storage coupled to the processor; a user interface associated with at least one of the gateway and an endpoint device for enabling management and control of application services executed by the application gateway; and programming in the storage for execution by the processor, wherein: (a) the programming comprises the application service received from the application service provider, the programming logically positioned on a user premises side of a logical network, (b) the programming in the storage delivers the application service to the associated endpoint device, and (c) the logical application service provider demarcation point provides a demarcation in accessibility to hardware resources of the gateway for operation at a user premises, whereby at least some hardware resources of the gateway for operation at a user premises are logically positioned on the application service provider side of the logical application service provider demarcation point and are inaccessible to the associated endpoint device from the user side of the logical application service provider demarcation point.