Why do VMO2 over-provision speed?

[Keezza]

New customer here, getting M350 installed soon..

they say I can expect speed up to like 380.

What’s the reasoning behind them going higher than the 350 subscribed or for example the gig1 package is actually 1152 or something?

[nodrogd · Accepted solution]

In a word, OFCOM.

It is a way of ensuring that the vast majority of people paying for that speed are actually getting it. If you were paying for 100Mb & VM capped it at 100Mb, any link in the chain not operating absolutely to spec would result in you getting less than you are paying for.

[Roger_Gooner]

Overprovisioning is done to manage network overload so that when demand increases the network is still able to cope and causes fewer customer complaints. VM has an "advertised speed" for each speed service, and for M350 it is 362Mbps which, with overprovisioning, results in an expected speed range of 368-381Mbps. However VM also has a minimum guaranteed download speed of 50% of advertised speed, i.e. 181Mbps, meaning that EDF is waived if speeds fall below this level for three consecutive days and VM is unable to fix the problem within 30 days.