Kilobits vs. Kilobytes
When looking at DSL speeds, be aware that the speeds are listed in Kilobits per second (Kbps) and not Kilobytes per second (KB/s). This is important to understand the speed you will actually receive when your DSL circuit is up and running and you begin downloading or uploading information over the Internet or your network. Below is a comparison table of the differences between a Kilobit and a Kilobyte.
Kilobits (Kb) Kilobytes (KB) Download or Upload Time*
144 Kbps 18 KB/s 1 minute
384 Kbps 48 KB/s 21 seconds
640 Kbps 80 KB/s 14 seconds
768 Kbps 96 KB/s 11 seconds
1,100 Kbps (1.1Mbps) 138 KB/s 7.5 seconds
1,500 Kbps (1.5Mbps) 187.5 KB/s 5 seconds
*Based on transferring a 1 MB file over a network with no congestion. Times are approximate.
Translations:
1 Kilobyte (KB) = 8 Kilobits (Kb)
1 Megabyte (MB) = 1024 Kilobytes