Mbps

Mbps

Mbps: a unit of measurement of data transfer rates equal to 1,000,000 bits per second.

The prefix mega makes this unit of measurement 1000 times kilobit, which is one thousand times the bit (think metric- kilogram is 1000 grams, kilometre is 1000 meters).

Therefore megabits is a rate equal to 1000 x 1000 bits per second, or 1,000,000 bits per second.

This measurement is one of the most common in today’s world, as most internet connections and download speeds are in the Mbps range.

At a time, internet speeds ran close to 5 or 10Mbps, but these days we may see internet running in the mid 50’s, and even up into the triple digits.

There are some connections even exceeding the Mb range, and some that offer triple digit upload and download speeds simultaneously (see 100/100 internet, common in some European nations).

For the most part, however, it is common to see download speeds approaching 50- 60 Mbps and upload speeds in the lower double- digits.

The lowercase “b” is Mbps indicates it stands for “Megabits” rather than “Megabytes.” Since one byte equals eight bits, 1MBps is equal to 8Mbps.

While storage capacity is typically measured in bytes, data transfer speeds are typically measured in bits. Therefore, Mbps is much more commonly used than MBps.

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