Networking :: printing connection speed from ppp?

In some other distros, pppd is apparently configured to display your connection speed (CONNECT 42000, for example), but I haven't been able to do this in DSL. I assume the variable PPP_SPEED would have this value, but for some reason using echo $PPP_SPEED does nothing when added to ip.up or a script in ip-up.d. There isn't even a blank line that one would typically get if the echo command echos nothing, so it seems that output from commands run from these scripts are not being sent anywhere?

My ISP is kind of crappy, in the sense that they usually provide connections between 28 and 36kbps, and on other distros I see the connection speed and instantly disconnect in an effort to get at least 40. With DSL I have no idea of the connection speed.

If you're wondering why so many questions about my dialup recently after using DSL for a few years =o)
To be honest I typically have used my Slackware to access the internet, and DSL for an experimental platform. Since I lost my slackware system and haven't yet gotten the latest version to replace it, I've been using DSL for everything, so I'm now beginning to notice some things I've taken for granted. My apologies for sounding like a noob =o)

original here.