Sounds like the phone is not being answered on the other end -are you sure you entered the correct phone number?
Which ISP -does it support standard ppp dialup connections? Did you use YaST to create the connection or some other applet? Are you sure you have your login name, and password correctly? I'm not in front of a SuSE 9 install right now, and I don't use dialup anymore, but if you give a little more information perhaps I can dig around my SuSE9 box and come up with some helpful hints.
When I used dialup I created a connection using kppp -the name may have changed. Typically I selected PAP (password authenticaiton protocol) and just had to give my login name and password... oh yeah, I also found it best to add the nameserver address directly to /etc/resolve.conf