I think it has to do with avoiding ambiguity. Granted, the byte hasn't been redefined, but given how every architecture and language in the past had a differen

I think it has to do with avoiding ambiguity. Granted, the byte hasn't been redefined, but given how every architecture and language in the past had a different standard for each ADS, one might want to be proactive. Also see the mess SI vs. binary prefixes created. As a sidenote, early modem producers used the baud (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baud http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baud) which coincides with bps only in some cases.