[Xperia Arc Android Development] pulz:
Hello All.

I had a small talk with DoomLord about flashing base-bands over the phone and the difference it would make for your phone so have decided to make the information that I got available for the public here so that no one else has to go to the same hassle I did Googling for all the stuff.

I am a power user of Android. But completely unbeknownst to the development side of the OS. So if I make any mistakes, I request you to point them out to me and I will make the necessary corrections.

So what exactly is a baseband ?!

Inside of your cellphone, there is a chip embedded that enables it to communicate with your carrier's transmission towers. This chip is known as a "baseband processor" and it is responsible for signal processing and realtime radio transmission operation. (Got that bit from WikiPedia)

The baseband is actually a piece of software that instructs that processor on what frequencies to operate on.

Kind of like a driver for any hardware that you might install on your computer.

So any gain in the level of harmony between the hardware and software that make data transmission happen on your phone (GSM/DATA) is only going to benefit the phone's performance. ( READ battery life, signal reception, etc.)

Also, each baseband has it's corresponding libraries which also need to be provided for it to be working optimally.

So that's that for the theory part.

I'm open to corrections. If anyone can point them out, I will be happy to edit the post. But I had a lot of trouble trying to understand WHY I should flash a particular baseband and what difference it will make.

Currently, at XDA we have baseband patches for baseband -36 and -64 available.

So as per your ROM requirements, it would be better to flash any of these base-bands onto your phone with their corresponding libraries.

Which brings us to the next part.

ACTUALLY flashing the baseband.

Pretty simple process actually.

But from what I know, you will need a rooted phone with an unlocked bootloader to do this. (!! Not sure !! )

And a custom recovery (Clockwork MOD) that can allow you flash .zip to NAND.

EDIT : You just "NEED" root. (Thanks Flo95)

Please follow post 2 for further info on how to do it without root.

My ARC S is rooted and has an unlocked bootloader.

So all that you need to do now is download the following :

1.Flashtool.

2.Baseband that you require.

3.Corresponsing baseband libraries

I will be posting more on this with screenshots so that everyone can enjoy the same benefits that I have currently after using my phone on -36 baseband and using the corresponding patches.

Credits to DoomLord (For awesome DOOM Kernel) and Iridaki (For baseband patches). If there is anyone else to credit, please do point and I will acknowledge the same here.

I invite inputs from other experienced XDA members to provide more technical Know-how on why this is necessary. Sadly, there is insufficient material right now on this topic here.

Thanks.

EDIT :

Lets share a list of working Basebands in various areas :

For eg. :

Gujarat, India : 36 works fine on Vodafone 3G

64 works fine on Vodafone 3G and Airtel.

NSW Australia (on the Optus network) : Baseband 36 tested to be working great

Finland:

-64 works great for Sonera / Saunalahti / Elisa / DNA

-36 drops connection alot for Saunalahti / Elisa

Croatia

baseband 56 works great in Croatia

You can point to the baseband working for you and your location and I will update the post accordingly.

Thanks

Please click the "THANKS" button if you feel you've benefited from the info !