Kilobit
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A kilobit is a unit of information, abbreviated kbit, sometimes also kb.
The standard definition is 1 kilobit = 103 = 1,000 bits. In the context of storage-memory and address-space sizes, the alternative binary definition of 210 = 1,024 bits is occasionally used (see Binary prefix), although this usage is ambiguous.
A decimal kilobit is equal to 125 bytes, while a binary kilobit is equal to 128 bytes.
Kilobits are commonly used to express digital communication speeds, e.g. a 56 kbit/s PSTN or 512 kbit/s broadband Internet connection. In the context of telecommunication transmission speeds, the decimal definition 1 kbit = 1000 bit is used uniformly.
The kilobit is closely related to the kibibit, which is unambiguously equal to 210 = 1,024 bits.
Kilobit (abbreviated to kb with a lower case b) is not to be confused with the term kilobyte (abbreviated to kB with an upper case b). A kilobit is one eighth of a kilobyte.