This table demonstrates the various rates at which common connections are made to the network. A 1MB file is close to the size 100 html e-mails. 10MB is the size of a nice html text version of the Bible, or of a 2-3 minute video clip. 1GB is about a CDrom and a half worth of data.
| Rate (Kbits per second) | Moving 1MByte (minutes) | Moving 10MByte (seconds) | Moving 1GByte (minutes) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9.6 [old modem, terminal] | 14.22 | 8530 | 14,222 (237 hours) |
| 28.8 [avg modem] | 4.74 | 2840 | 4,744 (79 hours) |
| 33.6 [good modem] | 4.06 | 2430 | 4,063 (68 hours) |
| 56 [modern modem max, switched] | 2.44 | 1460 | 2438 (41 hours) |
| 64 [ISDN 1b] | 2.13 | 1280 | 2133 (36 hours) |
| 128 [ISDN 2b] | 1.07 | 640 | 1067 (18 hours) |
| 256 | .53 | 320 | 533 (9 hours) |
| 512 | .26 | 160 | 266 (4.4 hours) |
| 1024 (1Mb) | .13 | 80 | 133 (2.2 hours) |
| 1536 (1.5Mb) [DSL] | .09 | 53 | 88 (1.5 hours) |
| 1544 (1.544Mb) [T1 (24*64Kb+)] | .09 | 53 | 88 (1.5 hours) |
| 2048 (2Mb) [E1 (32*64Kb), Cable] | 40 | 67 | |
| 3072 (3Mb) [Fractional DS3] | 30 | 44 | |
| 4096 (4Mb) [Wireless, Cable] | 20 | 33 | |
| 10Mb [Ethernet, High Cable] | 8 | 13 | |
| 34.368Mb [E3 (16*E1+, 512*64Kb+)] | 2.3 | 4 | |
| 44.736Mb [T3 (28*T1+, 672*64Kb+), DS3] | 1.7 | 3 | |
| 100Mb [Ethernet, FDDI] | .8 | 1.37 | |
| 155.52Mb [OC-3 (3*T3), STS-3] | .88 (52 sec) | ||
| 622.08Mb [OC-12 (12*T3), STS-12] | .21 (13 sec) | ||
| 2488Mbps [OC-48 (48*T3), STS-48] | .05 (3.3 sec) | ||
| 10,000Mbps [OC-192] | .014 (.8 sec) | ||
| 13,210Mbps [OC-255] | .010 (.62 sec) |
The "+" implies that there is extra framing beyond the simple multiple circuits. Thus a T3 actually has 28T1s plus some extra databits per frame for timing and such. You can't just multiply 64Kb by 672 and get the speed, there is "elbowroom" for administration in there.
