ISP:
Internet Service provider

bit:
smallest unit of digital information, i.e. ones & zeros

byte:
a set of bits

bps:
bits per second

Bandwidth:
Amount of data that can travel through your data line & or hardware at it’s fastest allocated speed.

Kbps:
kilobits per second =1000 bits per second

Mbps:
Million bits per second =1,000,000 bits per second

Gbps:
Gigabits per second = 1,000,000,000 (one billion) bits per second

Tbps:
Terabits per second = 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) bits per second

Download:
Download is the process of information coming from someplace else to you. When you browse to a web page, you are "downloading" that page. When you get a file from some place on the internet, you are downloading that file.

Upload:
Upload is the process of sending information from your computer onto the internet. The most common upload for most users is the simple request to "download" a new web page.

Local Loop
In telco, a local loop is the wired connection from a telephone company's CO (central office) in a locality to it's customers' telephones at homes and businesses.

This connection is usually on a pair of copper wires called twisted pair. The system was originally designed for voice transmission only using analog transmission technology on a single voice channel. Today, your computer's modem makes the conversion between analog signals and digital signals.

With Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) or Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), the local loop can carry digital signals directly and at a much higher bandwidth than they do for voice only.