Learning the basics of computer literacy in a school computer science lesson or with the help of a self-instruction manual necessarily includes a section on units of measurement of information volumes. Every user is familiar with the simplest of them, but it is not always possible to apply knowledge in practice.
One of the common problems of a modern inexperienced owner of a gadget with access to the Internet is determining the speed of the Internet, because a rare provider provides a channel that meets the characteristics specified in the contract. And taking into account the objective reasons and problems on the subscriber's side (outdated router, malware, cable damage, etc.), the speed is usually several times lower than the declared one. However, there is another reason - the confusion about megabits and megabytes.
The operator of technical support of any provider can easily name the program that causes the majority of calls from subscribers with a complaint about the low speed of the Internet - this is uTorrent. The fact is that everyone's favorite software for downloading pirated content shows the download speed in megabytes, while the generally accepted speed of measuring Internet speed is megabits (Mbps), which, as you might guess, contains 8 times less information (1 Mb = 8 Mbps). That is, even if the provider and the subscriber's own equipment provide an Internet connection with a speed of receiving incoming packets (download speed) of 100 Mbps, then downloading a movie in Full HD quality "weighing" 9,000 MB will take not 9,000 / 100 = 90 seconds, but 9,000 / (100/8) = 12 minutes.
Why is this confusion necessary? There is no exact answer to this question, but marketing is the most likely reason. After all, even an experienced user, reading an advertising brochure from a new provider in his city, hardly divides the speed indicated there in megabits by eight.
See also:
- Wi-Fi speed: how to check on your computer, iPhone or iPad and how to avoid mistakes.
- Shortened links, or how to get a short URL: 10 best services.
- Where to upload a video and get a link: the best free video hosting sites.
