pppd with laptop and cellphone

[Bruce Marshall]

I'm used to using pppd for connecting to the internet...  and now I would like 
to use a Nextel phone connected to the serial port of the laptop.

My problem is getting pppd started without the normal chat script and having 
chat dial the phone.  pppd should just wait for data coming in and then start 
it's normal auth procedures.

Is anyone out there doing this type of lashup?    (or doing manual dialup with 
an external modem.  I assume that would be the same situation)