My brother got one of those Sprint PCMCIA cell modem cards, a "Pantech PX-500 EVDO". Every single page on-line about how to configure Unbuntu Linux to use it was completely wrong. That includes everything about kppp, and everything about WvDial. The right thing was to go to the Gnome menus System/Admin/Network, pick "modem", and set the port as "/dev/ttyACM0", phone number "#777", user "user", and password "user", and turn on all the "Options". Done.