1Gbps is 1,000Mbps, or 1000 Megabits per second, which is really really fast.
Now to be clear, that's 1000 Megabits (Mb) not Megabytes (MB). We are usually more familiar with MB as that's commonly used to measure file sizes.
Whether something is in “MB” or “Mb” makes a lot of difference. In other words:
8Mb is approximately 1MB.
Or 8Mbps is about 1MB/s.
Or 1,000Mbps is about 125MB/s.
So when you sign up for a plan that is advertised as 1,000Mbps, you are essentially buying a line that can transfer data up to about 125MB/s or has 125MB/s bandwidth.
How fast is 1000Mbps or 125MB/s is in terms of usage? Below are examples of files with the average download duration:
MP3 file — 3MB, less than 1 second
TV episode — 350MB, 3 seconds
720p High Definition TV episode — 950MB, 8 seconds
Blu-Ray Movie — 15GB, 2 minutes
For the best download speed, connect your Gigabit ready PC directly to the Modem (Alcatel Lucent port 1) with a CAT6 cable.