I had the opportunity to play a bit with a test package of Vodafone Mobile Broadband (comes with the Huawei E220 Smart Modem), and of course I did that on a Ubuntu machine. :)

So here we are, I must admit, Vodafone is really well equipped when it comes to software support on any operating system. So they set up a software repository were all that software is being developed: forge.vodafonebetavine.net.

For making my Huawei E220 work, I did the following:
I downloaded the latest (even in beta) deb package from project page (better make it manually, cause the project is still in development, for ex.: wget https://forge.vodafonebetavine.net/frs/download.php/119/vodafone-mobile-connect-card-driver-for-linux_2.0.beta1_i386.deb).
I installed that, and checked for possible dependencies:
sudo dpkg -i /path/to/your/file.deb
sudo apt-get install -f
And finally rebooted the pc.
Then plugged the device and hit CONNECT!

Worked like a charm as for GPRS connection type so for 3G mode.

Acest articol poate fi citit și în română!

Full disclosure: Nor the Romanian Ubuntu community, nor me is not affiliated in any way with Vodafone. This article just demonstrates the freedom and fun of offering and creating good services and good software using Open Source solutions.