Gigabit refers to the speed of data transfer. The rate at which computing devices transfer or process information is measure in Mega Bytes Per Second (MBPS). The transfer rates need to be high for downloading and streaming rich content like video. A 2-hour HD film will typically contain 2 GB of dat If your internet download speed is 100 MBPS you will take 20 minutes to download the entire movie. If, on the other hand, your connection speed is 1000 MBPS, or 1 GBPS, you can do the same in a couple of minutes.