Bit per second. Unit of information speed when transmitting digital signals. (Other abbreviations used are bps and b/s).

the rate at which digital data can be carried expressed in Kilobit (1KB - 1000 bits - Kbit/s), Megabit (1MB - 1 million bits - Mbit/s), or Gigabit (1GB - 1000 million bits - Gbit/s).

"Bit" is a grouping of the words "binary" and "digits." Think of a bit a number, a 1 or a 0 to be exact. A grouping of bits help to make up ASCII Code. Data transfer is often in terms of the number of these "bits" that can be moved in a second.

Just as the speed of a car is measured in kilometres or miles per hour, so the speed of data transfer is measured as bits per second, abbreviated to bit/s or bps. 1 kbit/s = 1,024 bit/s; 1 Mbit/s = 1,048,976 bit/s. The data transmission speed of a GSM mobile telephone is 9,6 kbit/s, that of a fixed-line telephone/modem 56 kbit/s, GPRS up to 114 kbit/s, and UMTS up to 2 Mbit/s.