Alexander,
Thanks for looking into this. I was on the latest level available in karmic - I upgraded to the latest level from the network-manager edge ppa you suggested:

naveen@naveen-desktop:~$ dpkg -l | grep network-manager
ii  network-manager                       0.8~a~git.20091009t060001.bc653d2-0ubuntu1~nmt2 network management framework daemon
ii  network-manager-gnome                 0.8~a~git.20091009t022925.b257961-0ubuntu2~nmt1 network management framework (GNOME frontend
naveen@naveen-desktop:~$ dpkg -l | grep modemmanager
ii  modemmanager                          0.2.git.20091012t184520.6f65ad7-0ubuntu2~nmt1   D-Bus service for managing modems


I still see the same issues - network manager trace is the same as seen previously. Here is the modem manager trace:

naveen@naveen-desktop:~$ sudo /usr/sbin/modem-manager --debug
** Message: Loaded plugin Option
** Message: Loaded plugin Huawei
** Message: Loaded plugin Generic
** Message: Loaded plugin Option High-Speed
** Message: Loaded plugin MotoC
** Message: Loaded plugin Sierra
** Message: Loaded plugin Novatel
** Message: Loaded plugin Gobi
** Message: Loaded plugin ZTE
** Message: Loaded plugin Nokia
** Message: Loaded plugin Ericsson MBM
** Message: (ttyUSB2) opening serial device...
** (modem-manager:10204): DEBUG: (ttyUSB2): probe requested by plugin 'ZTE'
** Message: (ttyUSB3) opening serial device...
** (modem-manager:10204): DEBUG: (ttyUSB3): probe requested by plugin 'ZTE'
** Message: (ttyUSB1) opening serial device...
** (modem-manager:10204): DEBUG: (ttyUSB1): probe requested by plugin 'ZTE'
** Message: (ttyUSB0) opening serial device...
** (modem-manager:10204): DEBUG: (ttyUSB0): probe requested by plugin 'ZTE'
** (modem-manager:10204): DEBUG: (ttyUSB2): --> 'AT+GCAP<CR>'
<LONG-PAUSE-1>
** (modem-manager:10204): DEBUG: (ttyUSB3): --> 'AT+GCAP<CR>'
** (modem-manager:10204): DEBUG: (ttyUSB1): --> 'AT+GCAP<CR>'
** (modem-manager:10204): DEBUG: (ttyUSB0): --> 'AT+GCAP<CR>'
** (modem-manager:10204): DEBUG: (ttyUSB0): <-- 'AT+GCAP<CR><CR><LF>+GCAP: +CIS707-A, CIS-856, +MS, +ES, +DS, +FCLASS<CR><LF><CR><LF>OK<CR><LF>'
** (modem-manager:10204): DEBUG: (ttyUSB2): --> 'AT+GCAP<CR>'
<LONG-PAUSE-2>
** Message: (ttyUSB0) closing serial device...
** (modem-manager:10204): DEBUG: (ttyUSB2): --> 'AT+GCAP<CR>'
<LONG-PAUSE-3>
** Message: (ZTE): CDMA modem /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1 claimed port ttyUSB0
** (modem-manager:10204): DEBUG: Added modem /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1
** (modem-manager:10204): DEBUG: Exported modem /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1 as /org/freedesktop/ModemManager/Modems/0
** (modem-manager:10204): DEBUG: (ttyUSB3): --> 'AT+GCAP<CR>'
** (modem-manager:10204): DEBUG: (ttyUSB1): --> 'AT+GCAP<CR>'
** (modem-manager:10204): DEBUG: (ttyUSB2): --> 'ATI<CR>'
<LONG-PAUSE-4>
** Message: (ttyUSB2) closing serial device...
** (modem-manager:10204): DEBUG: (ttyUSB3): --> 'AT+GCAP<CR>'
** (modem-manager:10204): DEBUG: (ttyUSB1): --> 'AT+GCAP<CR>'
** Message: (ttyUSB3) closing serial device...
** Message: (ttyUSB1) closing serial device...

<LONG_PAUSE-X> identifies times when there was a long pause from modem-manager. Once modem manager exports the modem, network manager shows this message:

NetworkManager: Could not get device: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.


This is with a stock install of network-manager - specifically, I didn't add anything in /lib/udev/rules.d/77-mm-zte-port-types.rules. 

Let me know if you need anything else.


- Naveen