Re: [ANNOUNCE] ModemManager (for GSM and CDMA)

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Sat, 2008-08-02 at 12:43 +0100, Stuart Ward wrote:
> 
> The whole point of Network Manager is that it is the integrated
> network access tool. Modems are largely standard. we don't need
> special software to access different modems. Perhaps we need a
> configuration strings for some modems but I see no point in having a
> separate tool for modems.
> 
> Equally for GSM modems these are as least as standardised as WiFi
> cards. So we should not need a seperate tool to manage them. 

Unfortunately, they are not :(

There are different numbers of command ports (some use one, some have 2,
some have 3), some have different AT command sequence behavior (like
allowing commands before entering PINs or not), some use custom commands
to connect (Option 3G modems use AT_OWANCALL/AT_OWANDATA instead of ATDT
and do not require either a phone # _or_ PPP), others use custom PDP
methods before dialing (IPWireless 4G cards use "PPP" for AT+CGDCONT
instead of "IP"), and of course GSM and CDMA cards have different
command sets entirely.

Furthermore, many cards have custom commands for things like supported
frequency lists, radio power state (at!pcstate on Sierra cards), GPS
functionality, and a host of other things.

Dan