Mbit is the shortened version of megabit. “Mega” corresponds to 1 million and “bit” represents binary data that is used to store electronic or computerized data. A megabit therefore contains 1 million binary data on various computer software or programs. To simply the idea of bits and mbits or megabits, many computer experts often liken a bit to a single character in a word processing program. For every typewritten letter, one bit is necessary for this particular data to be stored on the computer. If there are about a million typed letters on the document, then this particular document shall be stored in at least 1 megabit or 1 mbit.

A similar computer term called “megabyte” is often confused with megabit or mbit. One byte of data actually represents 8 bits and so a megabyte can simply be translated to 1 million bytes. 1 million bytes will then correspond to 8 million bits since each byte can store up to 8 bits of data. In terms of computer jargon and abbreviations, megabit is usually referred to in small letters as in mbit or Mb. Megabyte on the other hand uses MB or megaByte.

The use of mbit or megabits does not only apply to storage of computerized data. Many people often encounter this particular term in terms data transfer for example. When a person tries to download one movie file from the internet, his/her computer may prompt the details fo the download of transfer and these details may include the download or file transfer rate in terms of megabits per second. This mbit detail simply represents how many bits of data are downloaded from a source website in a matter of 1 second. If the transfer rate for example is 100 mbits/second, it simply translates to 100 bits of binary data are transferred for every second that passes. At this rate, downloading a movie may take a few hours to finish.