Interesting variations above.
I have an external modem with a Rockwell chipset. I have a full copper wire phone service to my house (new estate, so new cabling), 3km to my local exchange, no digital trickery (I've asked the Telco). Until a couple of weeks ago, I only ever connected at 44k.
Now it's usually 45333 or 46 something (can't remember the numbers). A nice little Christmas gesture from our telco D:
AA