Packets are separate and distinct chunks of data that are encoded and sent on their way along a network, where they are decoded at the end of the transmission. Digital bandwidth measures how much information each signal carries, and is measured in bits per second. The more bits per second, the higher the bandwidth and the more information the signal carries. The basic premise of bandwidth is that the higher the bandwidth of a particular transmission medium, the more information you can carry. By comparison, a 28.8 modem can move some 28,000 bits per second, or about a page and a half of text.
Digital bandwidth offers some clear and compelling advantages over analog bandwidth.
Regardless of how long it does take, once that digital content arrives at its destination and is reassembled, it can be viewed, listened to, read or processed in its original form. Let's use the analogy of traffic. A suburban street during rush hour might be bumper to bumper with single passenger vehicles. That's the equivalent of a low bandwidth telephone call on analog copper wire. Now take a four-lane interstate, crammed with cars, buses, tractor trailers, car pools and single passenger cars, all moving at 65 mph.