Comment 385 for bug 446146

Just found a workaround... worked 3 out of 3 times which is a much better record than before.
Here's what I did.

Booted Ubuntu with the modem plugged in.
Right Clicked the icon representing my modem on the desktop (because nautilius mounted it as a storage device) and clicked eject.

Then, I unplugged and re plugged the modem.

Waited for a few seconds (approx 15-30) and then clicked connects in the network manager applet.
applet version is 0.7.996
Kernel is default Karmic kernel (no updates)