What Is the Bandwidth Problem?

The bandwidth of a telecommunications link is measured by the number of data bits per second (bps) that can be transferred on that link. Typically, the capacity of a telecommunications link is measured in kilobits per second (Kbps). One kilobit per second is equal to 1024 bits per second; one megabit per second (Mbps) is equal to 1024 kilobits per second.

Users require more from the Internet than they did previously. Users now transfer everything from formatted text to graphics to audio to full-motion video data content over the Internet. Such transfers require increasing amounts of bandwidth from the Internet telecommunications infrastructure and also increasing bandwidth from the computers and devices that connect to the Internet.