Honesty Box NBN Scheme, is it legit or a scam

I’ve had my Honesty Box for a couple of months, the first report wasnt available because somehow it dropped off the network. The second report didnt really tell me anything I didnt already know… not sure of its value to the individual. Do providers get reports too?

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Yes Sue, it is interesting what you say, as while I haven’t received the Honesty Box device yet, I have come to the same conclusion, as I have had an opportunity to see another Choice Community member’s NBN test results. From time to time I check my upload and download speed from various providers, as well as checking the ping.
I have been very fortunate that I don’t get any dropouts, as some others seem to get, and am very happy with the up and down speeds I get.

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I use mine to talk to my RSP when I have had issues particularly with poor peak service, CVC seems the issue and my uploads are very spotty (as you can see) which we are currently working through with my RSP on that issue. I guess individually it is just interest for many and really the program isn’t so much about the individual but about getting enough in each group of types of plans and providers to give accurate performance details. CHOICE getting these results can see if problems are occurring with particular providers and also by providing the info can help consumers find the best product/s to suit their needs.

The providers I have no idea if they get reports but they can certainly see where they sit in that regard by checking the CHOICE site.

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I have looked at the various information pages on the Choice site but there are some questions that I cannot find an answer to.

  • How is the allocation of honesty boxes done to remove selection bias, that is to accurately sample the population of NBN users in a representative way?

  • Given the fairly small sample of users what are the confidence intervals for the reported performance figures?

Can anybody help me here?

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I can only suggest on both that you write to/email the company and ask for an answer to your queries. Whenever I have contacted them they have replied reasonably quickly (day or two) and addressed my queries.

As for numbers it isn’t that far different to the ACCC first year where they expected about 2,000 households but they are increasing to around 4,000 but this is what ACCC say currently “which consists of hundreds of volunteers around the country who host a Whitebox on their broadband connection”.

The Honesty Box one starts at around 1,500 and may be expanded to 3,000 (possibly to include ADSL & Cable as well). CHOICE as they are paying for the testing may be able to provide more detail as to whether they will expand the testing, if it will run for longer than the announced 36 months, and what statistical certainty they have on results. I know that at least once data had to be adjusted because of outliers in the results as can be read about in the “Has any actual NBN customer speed data been published?” topic.

To contact Honesty Box you can write to them at

Suite 1, 79 Myrtle St
Chippendale, NSW, 2010
Australia

or email them at

helpdesk@honestybox.com.au (as per their email address in the program’s pdf document)

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A post was merged into an existing topic: 0279812755 : Another Telstra impostor

We only have Fixed Wireless and have had a monitoring device from Honesty Box (formerly eMetric) since March 2018. Now getting regular individual results showing that:
‘Your Internet is better than 4.6% of other Australians on nbn™FIXEDWIRELESS(FW)25/5’ :sob:

Not sure I really wanted to know that!!

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2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Has any actual NBN customer speed data been published?

Thanks for the reassurance Sue - much appreciated

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I live in Darwin and have had an Honesty Box for a couple of months now. I get regular reports but they dont mean a lot to me except that I have no better internet than anyone else. I guess I knew this anyway but I am happy to continue if it provides better statistics ‘down the road’.

Your Internet is better than 0.0% of other Australians on nbn™ FIBRE(FttB) 50/20.

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This is becoming a parallel thread with similar content, including Honesty Box reports, to the much older: Has any actual NBN customer speed data been published?
should this one be merged into it?

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In my view yes, it is the same kind of survey on the same population done for a similar purpose by two different bodies. There is another conversation about the same subject tested by a different method here. These are all closely related.

By comparing various surveys we may find interesting outcomes, that may tell us which (if any) are good surveys that actually report what they claim to report.

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I wonder though if the two are merged might it create more confusion about which results come from each source?

One is about honesty box results specifically.

The other considers results from the ACCC and perhaps other public published information Choice has no control over.

Would the differences serve to undermine the credibility of both sources of NBN performance data, or encourage support for more detailed analysis?

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There is already plenty of Honesty Box discussion there, predating this thread by a long time from myself and others, so I don’t think any confusion would result.

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Yes agree Gordon, the other topic has a lot of relatable history. It’s up to 156 posts or so and makes a great read, although more of a tear jerker for some!

P.S. They started the pour of our NBN FW Tower last week. Happy to add a honesty box if the service ever eventuates. Still sceptical given the 1,000m buffer of 30+m pine trees in the line of sight! Got another topic/s.

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What information does Choice control re the Honesty Box scheme?

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What would any reasonable person think?

I’m sceptical the ACCC reporting is representative of the variations in performance many NBN customers experience. It has been the subject of various criticisms as it has grown.

Is it possible that the alternative Honesty Box program supported by Choice is more creditable? The results appear more open and offer more individual detail than any alternative.

Choice partnered for the Honesty Box service? I don’t think I made any representations about control specific to information. It was not the intent, although Choice obviously has control in respect of its part of the relationship.

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I really don’t know. I was wondering if you knew any specifics, if you don’t no matter.

Thanks for raising the issue @Airsie and apologies for any shortcomings in terms of the response time or any confusion caused from the Honesty Box program. It seems like you have received the confirmation you needed so I’ve closed the thread for now. We’ll collect ongoing talk about broadband monitoring in NBN customer speed testing thread.

I’ll pass on the comments here as feedback, and please feel free to get in touch if any further questions come up.

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