As I understand things, the martian tarballs (based on Agere drivers) are used with recent kernels:

Try these:

http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/pack...em/kernel-2.6/

http://martian.barrelsoutofbond.org/

A recent Lucent (Agere) modem success story using the martian driver:

http://www.suseforums.net/index.php?showtopic=36260&hl=

Let us know how you get on. Good luck.