This article originally appeared in the Jan. 2011 issue of NGN Magazine.

There are more than 50 million home devices – including residential gateways, IP-based set-top boxes, VoIP terminals, femtocells and WiMAX base stations – managed today by Alcatel Lucent’s (News - Alert) Home Device Manager, the company’s Motive division is trumpeting.

That’s strong adoption, particularly considering that when the company introduced the HDM six years ago it had to evangelize to the industry the benefits of employing this kind of solution, says Ben Geller, senior director of product marketing at Alcatel Lucent’s Motive division.

The HDM is an auto config server that supports the Broadband Forum’s (News - Alert) TR069 protocol. It helps telcos of all sizes around the world to manage and troubleshoot remotely in-home devices.

Alcatel Lucent’s HDM was designed to work with any device, regardless of its manufacturer. The company has the Motive Smart Verification Program, which allows any chipset or CPE manufacturer to send its gear to the company’s labs where it will ensure interoperability. More than 90 chipset and CPE manufacturers participate with the program.

The HDM is in use by more than 85 service providers worldwide and has gone from 10 million devices managed to the more than 50 million in just two years. Alcatel Lucent’s Motive division estimates it has 50 to 70 percent of the worldwide market for this kind of product, Geller says, adding that HDM is also starting to see some interest from the cable TV companies.

Service providers have come a long way in recognizing how they can scale their businesses using technologies like HDM, which has tangible benefits technologically and economically, Geller says. He offers an example of how service providers were able to contain costs and improve time to market by using HDM. One example involved a service provider that was readying to do a service launch that involved tens of thousands of customers. Just as the service provider was approaching the turn up date, however, it found a security vulnerability in the in-home devices it was using. The company could’ve delayed the rollout, explains Geller, but instead it launched on time, and when those devices were plugged in they were put into walled garden and the HDM sent them a new firmware load and rebooted them. That saved the telco a lot of costs, time, and customer and technician frustration, he says.

A large service provider in EMEA realized about $10 million in savings by using

HDM, which helped reduce its customer support calls and technician costs.