Template talk:Bitrates

Keep the binary/decimal ambiguity out of bit rates

Of course the binary vs decimal prefixes have been discussed ad nausem all over Wikipedia and elsewhere. But most throrough discussions of this topic (e.g. Talk:Binary prefix) include the observation that decimal prefix names have a conventional binary meaning primarily in regard to memory that is structured with binary addresses, i.e memory on a computer's memory bus. This usage is not conventional for counted, but not binary-addressed data, such as data streams or mass storage media. In particular, it is essentially a telecom industry standard to discuss bit rates using decimal prefixes. For this reason, it is completely misleading to mention both binary and decimal interpretations for the decimal prefixes in this template.

Having both usages explained in Template:Quantities of bits makes much more sense, where it is clearly true that there are many areas where the non-standard usage is conventional. But in the specific field of bit rates we can and should stick to the standard terms. This is also consistent with most of the referencing entries say, e.g. Mbit/s.

Mditto 23:11, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

The existance of the ambiguity cannot be ignored. The "standard" in computing is that a kilobyte is 1024 bytes. 1 byte = 8 bits, and therefore 1kilobit equals 1024 bits. Accordingly 1kbps equals 1024 bits per second. I didn't invent the rules, I'm just reporting the facts. --Rebroad 21:25, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

No, that simply is not consistently true in computing in general, and it's completely false in the specific area of this template — bit rates. I invite you to find and cite here any evidence to support your report, but until then they are not facts. See Talk:Bit_rate for some further discussion and examples of the kind of citations that could be used to resolve this dispute. The references currently cited there are overwhelmingly against your view but you can add more. Mditto 01:48, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

How fast is "high speed internet"

Verizon says:"15Mbps" how do we know that that is mega bits, not mega bytes ? Time warner 10 Mbps. Optima 30 Mbps. DG12 (talk) 22:09, 17 October 2011 (UTC)