Bandwidth Conversions

When signing up for Colocation hosting, it's good to know how to convert bandwidth measurements between kbps to the more widely-used GB per month. Using an excel spreadsheet to perform calculations (or a calculator), use the formulae below to swiftly convert one bandwidth measurement to the other.

Kilobits per second (kbps) to Gigabytes (GB) per month Conversion

Figure 1.1: kbps to GB Bandwidth Calculation

You can do this in an Excel spreadsheet if you wish. Create 2 columns - kbps and GB Equivalent. Enter the kbps values in the kbps column. To create the GB equivalents, use Excel's built-in calculator tools. Highlight/place cursor in the first box where the conversion should be displayed (in our example below: B2). Then, in the top entry box (to the right of where you see a cross and a tick), enter: =A3*60*60*24*30/8/1000/1000

The A3 represents the box number of the kbps value you wish to convert. In the example below, our first value is in the A3 box - so we use A3. Be sure to actually type in the '=' sign. Press RETURN when done. Your calculated value (using the A3 value) should now be displayed in your designated box.

You can repeat this process for the remaining values, being sure to replace A3 with the next box down's value EG A4, A5, A6, A7 and so on. Your results should be identical to those displayed in the Excel screen shot below:

Figure 1.2: kbps to GB Bandwidth Conversion in Excel Spreadsheet

Explanation

1) Insert the 'n' kbps value, where n is the kbps data transfer you want to convert to GB per month.
2) Multiply by 60 (to get to a 'per minute' value).
3) Multiply by 60 again (to get to a 'per hour' value).
4) Multiply by 24 (to get kilobits per day).
5) Multiply by 30 (to get kilobits per month). NOTE: We've used a 30-day month here. For accuracy over the course of a year, use 365/12 = 30.416 days per month. Or you can calculate on a month-to-month basis and enter the number of days in that particular month (28 -31).

We now have an average 'kilobits per month' value. We now want to convert those kilobits into GB per month.

6) Divide by 1000 (to convert kilobits to megabits).
7) Divide by 1000 again (to convert to Gigabits).
8) Divide by 8 to convert bits to bytes: 1 byte = a set of 8 bits. In the calculation above, we have divided by 8,000,000 (1000 x 1000 x 8).

Gigabytes (GB) per month to Kilobits per second (kbps) Conversion

Figure 1.3: GB per month to Kpbs Calculation

The same process as above results in the following conversions of GB per month to an average kpbs over the month:

GB per month to kbps Conversion

Figure 1.4: GB per month to kbps Conversion in Excel Spreadsheet

Explanation

1) Multiply by 1024 (converts to MB per month).
2) Multiply by 1024 again (converts to KB per month).
3) Multiply by 8 (converts bytes to bits).
4) We now want to convert this 'kilobits per month' value to 'kilobits per second'. 5) So, divide by (30 x 24 x 60 x 60) to get to a Kilobits per second (Kbps) value.

NOTE: We used 1024 to convert down from GB to KB in this example. Most hosting providers use the 1 GB = 1000 MB conversion for data transfer (it's easier). For accuracy, ask them which conversion they use. Technically, Bytes are used for storage, bits are used for data transfer.

In Excel, you would use the following calculation: =(A3*8*1024*1024)/(30*24*60*60)