High-performance internet connectivity as a business success factor
The objective of the study is to evaluate the performance of modern high-speed broadband connections for home offices, small businesses and self-employed professionals under realistic operating conditions.
The ongoing digitalisation of business processes, the growing adoption of cloud services and the increasing importance of hybrid working models are placing ever greater demands on internet connectivity. Applications such as video conferencing, VPN connections, digital collaboration platforms and the transfer of large volumes of data all require reliable, high-performance broadband access.
Focus on home offices and small businesses
According to the German Federal Statistical Office, approximately 25 per cent of all employees in Germany worked from home at least occasionally in 2025. At the same time, millions of small businesses, shared office environments and sole traders form the target group commonly referred to as the SOHO segment (Small Office/Home Office). For these users, internet connectivity has become a business-critical component of everyday operations.
In practice, many of these organisations rely on high-performance residential broadband services, which are often based on the same technical platforms as business-grade products. To provide an objective assessment of their real-world capabilities, the SOHO High-Speed Test was established.
Exclusive focus on high-speed broadband services
The study considered only broadband connections offering a nominal download speed of at least 500 Mbit/s. These primarily include modern fibre-optic services (FTTH/FTTB) as well as high-performance DOCSIS-based cable broadband connections.
Compared with traditional copper-based access networks, these technologies deliver significantly higher bandwidths and lower latency, making them the foundation of today’s high-performance digital workplaces.
First-time inclusion of multi-gigabit services
One of the key features of this year’s study is the inclusion of multi-gigabit broadband services for the first time. These include offerings such as Deutsche Telekom’s services with speeds of up to 2 Gbit/s and M-net’s products providing up to 5 Gbit/s.
As these services represent a distinct category in terms of technical performance, availability and infrastructure requirements, they were assessed separately in a dedicated analysis. The results highlight the potential of this new generation of broadband services for particularly demanding use cases.
Real-world assessment based on practical usage scenarios
The evaluation was based on a multidimensional testing framework designed around typical business applications. The focus was not only on maximum throughput but, more importantly, on actual performance under everyday operating conditions.
The assessment covered five key categories:
- Stability – reliability and availability of the connection
- Voice – quality of voice services and VoIP applications
- Data (High-Speed Internet) – performance for file transfers and data-intensive workloads
- Web Services – responsiveness and performance of web-based applications and services
- Conferencing – quality of video and audio conferencing applications
For each test module, specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were defined and systematically evaluated. This approach ensured an objective, transparent and reproducible comparison of the various broadband services.
Supporting informed broadband purchasing decisions
The results of the SOHO High-Speed Test 2026 provide businesses, self-employed professionals and home-office users with a reliable basis for selecting modern broadband services. At the same time, the study identifies the providers and technologies delivering the highest levels of performance and reliability under real-world conditions across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Weitere Informationen
The full test results, detailed rankings and comprehensive information on the testing methodology are available on the connect professional website.