What are Mbps and Gbps? How to Measure Internet Speed?
What does the speed of the internet we use in our homes and workplaces mean? What do terms like Mbps and Gbps mean? In this guide, we answer all these questions.
The dominant xDSL (such as ADSL, VDSL) infrastructures in today’s Turkey and the fiber infrastructures that continue to become widespread have enabled us to see internet connection speeds of Mbps and even Gbps. With the transition from bit rates to Megabit rates, the web world continued to develop rapidly.
Every internet user can access internet service with packages purchased from any internet service provider company. Packages are also often sold according to the type of infrastructure and the speeds promised to be delivered. So is every speed stated real, how can we test it?
Measure your internet speed with Speedtest.net and its derivatives
Speedtest, a company within OOKLA, offers a tool to measure the speed of your internet connection on the Speedtest.net website. With this tool, you can see the latency, download speed and upload speed of your internet connection.
Speedtest, which has servers all over the world, provides the most accurate result by detecting the closest server to you, whether you are in Turkey or in a different part of the world.
How to measure internet speed with Speedtest.net?
To measure speed with Speedtest, you must first enter the Speedtest.net website. At this stage, for the most accurate result, it will be more accurate to choose a device connected to the modem with a cable.
In addition, since using the internet during the test will directly affect the result, it would be best to turn off or not use the internet from other devices during the test process.
When we enter the Speedtest.net website, we encounter a screen like this;
On this screen we encountered before the test, there are some details such as the internet service provider we use and the server under test. So what do these mean?
The parts we indicate with numbers on the image;
- The service provider of the tested internet service,
- Current internet IP address,
- The tested server
- test area,
means. If there is a different location from the area where you use the internet in the test area, choosing the area closest to you or directly, will affect the test result. To do this, simply click on the “Change Server” button.
Now that we know the details, let’s move on to the testing phase. The big GO button, which you can see in the same image, is the button with which we will start the test. As we mentioned above, not using the internet during the test will directly affect the result.
After pressing the GO button, there is a test process that can take about 30-40 seconds or 1 minute.
After the test was completed, we finally got the results. In the tests made with Speedtest, 3 basic points are tested. Ping (latency), download and upload speeds.
In our tests, our ping, that is, the delay value, was 4ms. Let’s say that this delay value is the delay between the test server and our internet. When we continued, we reached 96.99 Mbps download and 10.47 Mbps upload values. When we look at it, we see that we benefit greatly from a 100 Mbps package.
So what exactly do these download and upload speeds tell?
What are Mbps and Gbps?
We tested our internet and Speedtest gave us a few meaningless values. Many users interpret the result in Mbps or Gbps on test sites such as Speedtest as data in MB that they can download per second. However, the situation is very different.
Let’s first consider the term Mbps. At the end of our test, we achieved a download speed of 96.99 Mbps. This value actually means that we can download about 12.12 MB of data per second. So the value we have to consider in download speed will be MB/s or MBps. Capitalizing or lowering the letter B changes a lot.
We can reach this value by dividing the Mbps value obtained as a result of the test by 8. The reason for this is that each byte of data consists of 8 bits.
The value written in Mbps means Mb(Megabit)ps(per second). In other words, this value shows us the result in bits, not in bytes. When we write MBps, it means MB(Megabyte)ps(every second). Although the use of MBps is not very common, it is useful to keep in mind. The term MB/s, which we have just mentioned, is a much more widely used term. This can be explained as MB(Megabyte)/s(second).
Where Gbps is our data download speed in Gigabits per second. 1 Gigabit equals 1024 Mbps.
It is not possible to reach Gbps speeds in Turkey. Even if it is possible, exorbitant prices are encountered or it is only provided to corporate subscribers. However, TurkNet provides users with 1024 Mbps, ie 1 Gbps internet for 99.90 TL with its service called Gigafiber.
What is this Gigafiber?
TurkNet, one of Turkey’s successful service providers, offers the Gigafiber service, which it launched with its own infrastructure, for 99.90 TL. Moreover, the promised speed of up to 1000 Mbps is not only available in download speed, but also in upload speed.
Gigafiber service, as in other services of TurkNet, is a non-committal service and if you switch from a different operator, a part of the cancellation fee is covered by TurkNet. If you have TurkNet Gigafiber at your address, you can submit your application to become a TurkNet member immediately.
