This is just tradition really. Net speed used to be measured in the number of bits per second because that measure was relevant at the time it was used to the audience who would be using it.
To the general public, and in the modern day, it does tend to lead to more confusion. However, the US has officially, by law, been using the Metric system since 1975 when it enacted the Metric Conversion Act.
So I don’t expect this to change any time soon.
Lurickin
Data is transferred in bits, it’s stored in bytes.
Thing_On_Your_Shelf
Bigger number better really
The average person isn’t going to know the difference between a bit and a byte, so I imagine if they offered two identical plans one advertising 1000 Mb/s and the other 125 MB/s, more people would sign up for the 1000 Mb/s
KingAmongstDummies
With GbPs it’s more common they are switching to that but with Mb vs MB it’s quite obvious.
The average joe has no clue about the difference between Mb and MB, nor Kb/Mb, etc. So, bigger number would probably be better yes? That’s pure marketing.
In addition we’ve been stuck on Mb’s (bits) for quite a long time.
When they switched from Kb modem/isdn lines to Mb cable ones they were speeds of like 1 or 2 Mb. Over the years those numbers grew bigger and bigger. So wouldn’t it feel strange that after like 20 years all of a sudden you go from 1, 10, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000Mb, back to 125MB? (It’s both mb right?) Or in the earlier days even from 8Mb to 1MB would seem strange to those that don’t know the significance of the capital B. Even many people in IT still use them wrongly sometimes (or all the time). No doubt it would lead to unnecessary confusion.
Curun
I’m just happy you are using the metric prefix for both consistently.
So many knuckle draggers on here lately would be arguing 1gbps(metric) would translate into 119megabyte(american false metric, microsoft windows style).
throwherawaylol69
Flashbacks to people asking why Steam is downloading at “only” 12 MB/s when they have a 100 Mbps connection.
Dangerous-Still2986
Dude, I remember when it would take an hour just to download a 480 P movie so the fact that I can download 130 GB video game in less than 10 minutes is a goddamn miracle in my opinion.
epileftric
1bit/s = 1Hz of bandwidth.
Internet speeds by ISP are measured in bits per second only because they are selling you bandwidth. They are providing a communication channel. The only viable units of measurement for bandwidth are Hz and bits/s. Depending if it’s digital or analog.
Even though information is arranged in every medium as 8bit arrays, that information is completely irrelevant when talking about serialized data over a communication channel. Because for example depending on the modulation used in the channel, it could be the case that 2^N bits are transferred as a single symbol, yet that representation doesn’t affect the transfer bit rate.
You could send 32 bits (1s or 0s) per second in a serialization or 1 out of 32 different symbols every second and the transfer rate is the same. Again, how those 32 bits are stored and managed in the systems transferring data is completely irrelevant to the communication channel description.
Lobanium
They’re advertising the provided bandwidth/link speed, not the actual speed at which you can expect to get data, which they can never guarantee.
There’s a lot more that goes into bandwidth than just the actual data being transferred.
deefop
Not sure what the point is here. Network throughput is always measured in bits. The fact that end users don’t know the difference between bits and bytes isn’t really the fault of the ISP.
NonameideaonlyF
1 byte = 8 bits (binary digits)
125 Byte x 8 = 1000 Mbits
In Networking, speed is measured in bits and Storage in bytes
15 Comments
Big number make brain happy
they be blasting 1GbPS instead of 125MBPS
This is just tradition really. Net speed used to be measured in the number of bits per second because that measure was relevant at the time it was used to the audience who would be using it.
To the general public, and in the modern day, it does tend to lead to more confusion. However, the US has officially, by law, been using the Metric system since 1975 when it enacted the Metric Conversion Act.
So I don’t expect this to change any time soon.
Data is transferred in bits, it’s stored in bytes.
Bigger number better really
The average person isn’t going to know the difference between a bit and a byte, so I imagine if they offered two identical plans one advertising 1000 Mb/s and the other 125 MB/s, more people would sign up for the 1000 Mb/s
With GbPs it’s more common they are switching to that but with Mb vs MB it’s quite obvious.
The average joe has no clue about the difference between Mb and MB, nor Kb/Mb, etc. So, bigger number would probably be better yes? That’s pure marketing.
In addition we’ve been stuck on Mb’s (bits) for quite a long time.
When they switched from Kb modem/isdn lines to Mb cable ones they were speeds of like 1 or 2 Mb. Over the years those numbers grew bigger and bigger. So wouldn’t it feel strange that after like 20 years all of a sudden you go from 1, 10, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000Mb, back to 125MB? (It’s both mb right?) Or in the earlier days even from 8Mb to 1MB would seem strange to those that don’t know the significance of the capital B. Even many people in IT still use them wrongly sometimes (or all the time). No doubt it would lead to unnecessary confusion.
I’m just happy you are using the metric prefix for both consistently.
So many knuckle draggers on here lately would be arguing 1gbps(metric) would translate into 119megabyte(american false metric, microsoft windows style).
Flashbacks to people asking why Steam is downloading at “only” 12 MB/s when they have a 100 Mbps connection.
Dude, I remember when it would take an hour just to download a 480 P movie so the fact that I can download 130 GB video game in less than 10 minutes is a goddamn miracle in my opinion.
1bit/s = 1Hz of bandwidth.
Internet speeds by ISP are measured in bits per second only because they are selling you bandwidth. They are providing a communication channel. The only viable units of measurement for bandwidth are Hz and bits/s. Depending if it’s digital or analog.
According to [Shannon’s theorem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon%E2%80%93Hartley_theorem) there’s a relationship between analog BW and digital bit rate, depending on the channels noise level.
Even though information is arranged in every medium as 8bit arrays, that information is completely irrelevant when talking about serialized data over a communication channel. Because for example depending on the modulation used in the channel, it could be the case that 2^N bits are transferred as a single symbol, yet that representation doesn’t affect the transfer bit rate.
You could send 32 bits (1s or 0s) per second in a serialization or 1 out of 32 different symbols every second and the transfer rate is the same. Again, how those 32 bits are stored and managed in the systems transferring data is completely irrelevant to the communication channel description.
They’re advertising the provided bandwidth/link speed, not the actual speed at which you can expect to get data, which they can never guarantee.
There’s a lot more that goes into bandwidth than just the actual data being transferred.
Not sure what the point is here. Network throughput is always measured in bits. The fact that end users don’t know the difference between bits and bytes isn’t really the fault of the ISP.
1 byte = 8 bits (binary digits)
125 Byte x 8 = 1000 Mbits
In Networking, speed is measured in bits and Storage in bytes
It’s the same thing 🤣
Mbps = Megabit per speeds