Here's what I came up with.. its VERY primitive at this point, and I'll be developing it more so, much thanks to jcwren for his example.. I hope this helps someone out there..

#!/usr/bin/perl
# 
# Purpose:      Dial the OOB on a cisco router
#               and determine the OOB if the
#               OOB line is up and functioning
#               properly
# 
# Code by Brad Lhotsky <brad@divisionbyzero.net>
# Based off code by jcwren on http://perlmonks.org
#
$|++;
use strict;
use Device::SerialPort;

###################
# configs.
my $DEVICE = '/dev/cua1';               # serial port ext. modem is on
my $QUIETDIAL = 0;                      # Turn on/off the modem speake
+r
my $USERNAME = 'username' . "\n";       # username for the router
my $PASSWORD = 'password' . "\n";       # password for the router
my $NUMBER = '912345678';               # routers number
my $MAX_RETRY = 3;                      # number of times we retry
my $DEBUG = 1;                          # print a whole buncha crap?

###################
# Globals.
my $DONE = 0;
my $TOTALIN = 0;
my $TOTALOUT = 0;
my $SUCCESS = 0;
my $ERROR = "";
my $ob = new Device::SerialPort ($DEVICE, 1);
        die "Couldn't access $DEVICE: $!\n" unless $ob;


###################
# setup device
print "configuring ... ";
sleep(1);
$ob->baudrate(9600);
$ob->parity('none');
$ob->databits(8);
$ob->stopbits(1);
$ob->handshake('none');
$ob->stty_icrnl(1);
$ob->stty_ocrnl(1);
$ob->stty_onlcr(1);
$ob->stty_opost(1);
$ob->write_settings;
print "done.\n";

####################
# Now we need to do
# some modem dialing 
# stuff..
my $init = "ATH0\n";                    # modem hangup, clear the line
+.
my $silence = "ATM0\n";                 # silence the speaker
my $dial = "ATDT $NUMBER\n";            # dial the number
my $count = $ob->write($init);
warn "WRITE FAILED!\n"          unless $count;
warn "WRITE INCOMPLETE!\n"      if $count != length($init);
select undef, undef, undef, 2.5; # sleep 2.5 seconds.
if($QUIETDIAL) {
        $count = $ob->write($silence);
        warn "WRITE FAILED!\n"          unless $count;
        warn "WRITE INCOMPLETE!\n"      if $count != length($silence);
        select undef, undef, undef, 2.5; # sleep 2.5 seconds.
}
$count = $ob->write($dial);
warn "WRITE FAILED!\n"          unless $count;
warn "WRITE INCOMPLETE!\n"      if $count != length($dial);


####################
# trap ctrl+c here.
$SIG{'INT'} = sub { $DONE++; $ob->close; undef $ob; };

my $RETRY = 0;
while(!$DONE) {
        my ($inbytes,$outbytes) = (0,0);
        (undef, $inbytes, $outbytes, undef) = $ob->status or 
                warn "could not get port status!\n";
        $TOTALIN += $inbytes;
        $TOTALOUT += $outbytes;
        if(my $line = $ob->input) {
                if($line =~ /CONNECT\s+(\d+)/i) {
                        # Standard baudrate should be 9600,
                        # but in case its not, we need to 
                        # reconfigure our modem.
                        $ob->baudrate($1);
                        $ob->write_settings;
                        sleep(1);                        
                        # After this point we need ot push "enter" a f
+ew times.
                        $ob->write("\n\n");
                } elsif($line =~ /sername\:/) {
                        $ob->write($USERNAME);
                } elsif($line =~ /assword\:/) {
                        $ob->write($PASSWORD);
                } elsif($line =~ /NO CARRIER/i) {
                        end(\$ob, \$DONE) if ($RETRY >= $MAX_RETRY);
                        $RETRY++;
                        $ob->write($init);
                        select undef, undef, undef, 1.5;
                        $ob->write($dial);
                } elsif($line =~ /[\w().-]*[\$#>]/) {
                        # prompt
                        # which is all we were looking for!
                        # we're done! and successfully!
                        $DONE++;
                        $SUCCESS++;
                        last;
                }
                print $line;
        }
        select undef, undef, undef, 0.5; # sleep for half a second.
}
print "Total bytes: $TOTALIN (in), $TOTALOUT (out)\n";
if($SUCCESS) {
        end(\$ob);
        print "successful!\n";
}
sub end {
        my $obref = shift;
        my $checkref = shift;
        ref($checkref) && $$checkref++;
        $ob->write("ATH0\n");
        $ob->close; 
        undef $ob; 
}
[download]

welp thats about it.. look for it to go up in its finalized state on http://www.otrics.com where me and my friend (cleen here) are assembling a suite of network monitoring/auditing/configuration/trouble shooting tools for all you network admins out there.. wish us luck.. ;)

-brad..