[lucid] attaching to GSM USB Huawei modem fails first attempt

Binary package hint: network-manager

Although I'm generally fairly pleased with the way Lucid handles my Huawei 3G USB modem, the handling is not as smooth as in Karmic. Most irritating is the fact that when I plug in the modem, network manager will almost consistently fail the first connection attempt, resulting in unnecessary notifications and a prolonged wait until it eventually succeeds.

How to reproduce:
1) Plug in the USB modem.
2) Observe the nm-applet icon and the notifications displayed.

Desired behavior: The connection should be prompt without any notifications of failure.
Actual behavior: The connection process takes a long time and there are notifications about loss of connection.

The modem is reported by lsusb as
Bus 004 Device 006: ID 12d1:1001 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. E620 USB Modem

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Date: Tue Dec 22 20:10:17 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
IfupdownConfig:
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InterestingModules: b44
IpRoute:
 10.64.64.64 dev ppp0 proto kernel scope link src 83.188.241.122
 default via 10.64.64.64 dev ppp0 proto static
Package: network-manager 0.8~a~git.20091013t193206.679d548-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-9.13-generic
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: yes
SourcePackage: network-manager
Tags: lucid driver-b44
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-9-generic x86_64
WpaSupplicantLog: