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).
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.