Why is speed of internet connection generally described in megabits/second whereas the size of a file is in megabytes/second? Is it purely for ISPs to make their offered connection seem faster than it actually is to the average internet user?

Question

Why is speed of internet connection generally described in megabits/second whereas the size of a file is in megabytes/second? Is it purely for ISPs to make their offered connection seem faster than it actually is to the average internet user?

In: Technology

Answer 1

It started in bits long ago, when not everything used 8 bits per char. There is no reason to change, it will make your product seem 8x slower than everybody else.