Over the past four months I have installed and configured twelve Dell Inspiron mini 10 netbooks with Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) Netbook Remix. The netbooks are connected via USB cellular modems from Telus. During the process of ordering and configuring the cellular modems I received three different modems:
Overall I managed to get all three USB cellular modems working with Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) Netbook Remix. I ran into a few technical issues that I overcame and have had great success with all three cellular modems.
Status: WORKS
This cellular modem was the first one I installed and it worked out of the box. In total I installed three of the Sierra Wireless USB 598 cellular modems. Telus does not appear to sell this modem as it has been replaced by newer models.
The modem is a self-contained unit and has a micro-SD slot for data storage. A Windows or Mac operating system is required to activate the cellular modem by installing a program that is stored on the modem. When the cellular modem is plugged in it shows up as a removable device and contains the installation program.
The Sierra Wireless USB 598 differed from the Sierra Wireless USB 306 and Huawei E182E in the fact that it did not have a separate SIM card.
Status: WORKS
The Sierra Wireless USB 306 replaced the Sierra Wireless USB 598 and had two issues I had to work through. The primary problem was intermittent DNS/nameserver issues where I was unable to resolve hostnames even while connected to the cellular network. The secondary issue was the fact that I had to manually configure the network.
I traced the DNS issue to a possible bug with pppd. The nameservers were not properly propagating to /etc/resolv.conf. As of this date the issue has not been resolved. The bug report can be found here.
In order to work around the nameserver issue I manually set the DNS servers for the cellular network. In my case I used Google's DNS servers: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.8.4.
To manually setup the cellular network I added a mobile broadband connection, chose Canada, selected "I can't find my provider and I wish to enter it manually", and selected "My provider uses GSM technology (GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA)". When prompted I set the APN to isp.telus.com. Note that originally Telus did not appear in the "Select your provider from a list" after the initial install however I noticed that it does appear now. The addition is possibly due to an update applied after the original install.
The Sierra Wireless USB 306 also has a MicroSD slot and comes with a SIM card that is inserted into the device. If you need to remove the SIM card note that it is awkward and you may require something to grip the card. I used a pair of needle nose pliers.
Status: WORKS
After resolving the problems with the Sierra Wireless USB 306 I created a disk image using partimage and used it to install all subsequent netbooks. The mobile broadband connection I created for Sierra Wireless USB 306 also worked for the Huawei E182E.
You can login to your Telus account and add the USB cellular modem however this approach failed to work for me due to unknown reasons.
Of the twelve cellular modems I configured I had to call Telus technical support (1-877-481-2332) for ten of them in order to activate them. On average it took over 45 minutes per batch of three cellular modems. I was required to provide the SIM and IMEI number to the technician for each cellular modem.
I received a diverse spectrum of support from Telus and offer you my streamlined step-by-step approach in the case where you need to call: