I had to do a bit of research to get my T-Mobile mobile broadband USB Stick 120 (ZTE) to work on my Ubuntu 9.10 desktop but in fact, it’s very simple once you know how, so I thought I’d share it here.

First use:

1. Boot your computer WITHOUT the USB stick plugged in.

2. Plug in USB Stick.

3. Wait until “ZTE Modem” icon appears on your desktop/in your list of drives.

4. Right-click on “ZTE Modem” drive and select “eject”.

5. Wait for roughly 20 seconds.

6. Left click on your Network Connections manager (it’s an icon near the date, top right corner of desktop – or find it in your menu).

7. It should list things like “Wired Network”, “Wireless Network” etc Among them, it should list “Mobile Broadband”.

8. Select VPN Connections –> Configure VPN and click on the “Mobile” tab.

9. Click on “add” and then follow the wizard steps. My setup is for T-Mobile UK and it works (I selected “default” for the price plan). This will save your settings as “my connection”.

For future use:

Follow steps 1 to 7 as above; “my connection” should appear in the list at step 7, so simply select this and it will connect.