How does Mbps work exactly?

[Mr.CookieMonster]

Hi,

I know that the Internet we have is in Mbps or kbps (Mbits per second or Kilobits per second).

Now, MWeb has reduced their 1mbps account to R199 per month. How is this possible? I thought the cost per mbps from Telkom was about R800 - R1000 per month. does telkom sell at mbits per second or mega bytes per second?

Thanks

 

[Scooby_Doo]

They over sell it at a ratio of about 1:20.

 

[Gtx Gaming]

all isp's, oversell their bandwidth to make money.

 

[Mr.CookieMonster]

What do u mean by over selling? Do they sell multiple accounts to use 1mbps of theirs i.e: 20 1mbps user accounts to try use 1mbps of theirs?

 

[Scooby_Doo]

for example if an ISP has a 100mbps line they will put 2000 people at 1mbps on that line.

 

[froot]

What do u mean by over selling? Do they sell multiple accounts to use 1mbps of theirs i.e: 20 1mbps user accounts to try use 1mbps of theirs?

Basically what happens is this: You have a 1 megabit pipe. You sell 20 x 1megabit accounts for that 1megabit pipe spot, in the hope that not all 20 of those accounts will be maxed at any given time. (I took a 1Mbps pipe as an example).