Why didn’t I get 1 Mbps Speed when I have 1 Mbps Plan Broadband?

Many of my friends discuss with me, about some typical issue with their broadband speed as , they have 1 Mbps (or so on) plan with them at their home and still they are facing low download issue as  file is downloaded at 128 KBps only (as shown by Browser or there download accelerators).

They say ISP Cheat us and do not give displayed speeds on internet as promised in plans.

So I explained the concept to them about their miss-understanding in Broadband Speed issue.

When you see that broaches of Internet Service Provider (ISP) like Vodafone etc , you will get that they are using the terms for Speed as “Mbps” or “Kbps”. So if they say they have plan giving 1Mbps, means it is having max speed of 1 mega bits per sec.  (Please note the alphabet “b”)  (This is known as download speed) 

While when we download anything from Internet, software and browsers uses different terms Like “MBps” and KBps”   (Please note the alphabet “B”) (This is known as transfer speed)

Note here 

Operators /ISP provider use terms as :-  Mbps: Mega bits per Sec.   (It uses small “b”) – Download speed.

Software/ browser use terms as: MBps : - Mega Bytes per Sec.       (It uses Capital “B”) – Transfer speed.

1 Byte = 8 Bits   :  DigitalElectronics Concepts.

1 KB = 1024 x 8 = 8192 bits

1MB =1024KB = 128 Kbits 

Thus when you have 1 Mbps plan means you will get max to max 1024/8 = 128 kbps

Likewise if you have plans like 512 Kbps or 2 Mbps, 4 Mbps you will get following speed 

Difference between Transfer speed and Download speed

128Kbps = 16 KBps (dial up connection/ ISDN)

256 Kbps = 32 KBps (DSL -Digital Subscriber Line, 2G networks- GPRS)

512 Kbps = 64 KBps (2.5 G, EDGE networks, leased Lines)

1 Mbps = 1024 Kbps = 128 KBps (cable broadband, ADSL, 3G, CDMA, UMTS)

2 Mbps =2048 Kbps = 256 KBps (cable broadband, ADSL, 3G……)

4 Mbps =4096 Kbps = 512 KBps (3G, Broadband services, wi-fi)

8 Mbps = 8192 Kbps = 1 MBps  

10 Mbps = 1.25 MBps