He is a bit sketchy in is description on what he already has.
If I understand him correctly, he has nothing so far and is looking for a Linux expert to give him something.
Ask him to explain in detail what exactly his objectives are:
* What hardware are we looking at, a normal PC or some "special" non standard hardware? Specs would be nice - size hd, mobo peripherals, any extras we need to know of?
* What exactly has he done so far?
* If nothing, what is he wanting to achieve by this? Is he looking at marketing it or is it just a "school project"?
I really sounds like a guy just wanting to set up a Linux 3G router for home use, and if that is the case, then there is nothing special needed, no programmer, only a Linux user that knows how to install, configure and set up a normal PC to act as a router. There will be plenty of them on here.