1 Mbit = ? bytes

Question

I always get confused about this. Is there a "standard" conversion of Megabits to bytes?

Is it:

 1 Megabit == 1,000,000 bits == 125,000 bytes

Or:

 1 Megabit == 2^20 bits == 1,048,576 bits == 131,072 bytes

Answer 1

Megabits is a unit of measure that comes from TELECOM, not CS. So it is:

 1 Megabit == 1,000,000 bits == 125,000 bytes

When it's a CS based unit of measure, usually the 1024 rules apply:

 1 Megabyte = 1,024 Kilobytes = 1,024 x 1,024 bytes