This is how I got it to work on Arch Linux:
First I inserted the Telenor SIM in my mobile phone and removed the PIN code.
Then I followed these instructions to get mbbservice running. Go to https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4oQlH9i38JPR3hDRlNXbFRWYjQ and click Download. Unzip, and inside the linux_mbb_install directory
chmod +x install
./install
Now you have a file called /usr/local/MobileBrServ/mbbservice. You can either execute that file manually, or put it in some upstart/systemd/whatever script.
Then I put the SIM back in the modem and plugged it into my computer. The E3236 didn't show up in /dev/ttyUSB* for me, presumably because it's a "HiLink driverless" modem. When I connected the E3236 modem, lsbusb gave me
[...]
Bus 004 Device 007: ID 12d1:14db Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
When I typed
dmesg -T | grep -i usb
I got
[Fri Dec 27 17:14:40 2013] usb 4-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 7 using ehci-pci
[Fri Dec 27 17:14:40 2013] cdc_ether 4-1.2:1.0 eth1: register 'cdc_ether' at usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.2, CDC Ethernet Device, 58:2c:80:13:92:63
Then I created /etc/network.d/eth1 with the contents
CONNECTION='ethernet'
INTERFACE='eth1'
IP='dhcp'
Now, typing netcfg -u eth1 brought up the interface. When I open a browser and go to http://192.168.1.1 I get the Telenor status page.