[Samsung Galaxy S8 Questions and Answers] Shakane:
Hello XDA community. Just want to thank the providers, mods and users in advance for providing a cool forum to discuss related matters, as well as for any help provided to me in my struggle to get past this carrier locked bootloader. I find it very bothersome to not have access to my own phone by root. Especially now when my carrier (to be unnamed here) is forcing a sim card swap and re-branding of its company in my province in Canada under new agreement and terms in time with the passing of bill C-11.

Bill C-11: An Act to enact the Consumer Privacy Protection Act and the Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts.

Given the political climate, i'm deciding to leave this carrier. I've a sat phone with a large bank of minutes which lacks the usefulness of a smart device. But will have to do if alternative carrier (volta wireless https://www.voltawireless.com/ ) is unable to provide functional alternative. I'm currently waiting for a sim card from Volta but have concerns about the ability to use their app on this phone with the current firmware installed. I've already discovered, after resisting 3 years of updates on this phone, when i allowed the phone to update in order to install gopro software ( it killed me to do it, but needed camera for an event and panicked), that certain radio show app would no longer access or buffer stream from source. So i have a feeling apps like Volta Wireless one are going to struggle as well. I've not tested with their sim card installed yet, but currently the Volta app is able to receive sms, but not send. Voice and data appear to be working though. So a third party voip app would likely function. (need to test) I've heard reports of others with this issue leading me to wonder if the One Ui or android version might be playing a hand?

Please bear with me. My experience with much of this technology in terms of unlocking or rooting is limited. I've jailbroke my Iphone4 a long time ago, my samsung S5 (also had a carrier locked bootloader that was able to circumvent) i rooted about 5 years ago with cyangenmod and then drove over it with my truck. :P

My current phone delema:

Samsung S8 sm-g950w / G950WVLS8CTI1 question? does the "S8" mean it has vers 8 bootloader?

One UI version 1.0 / Android ver 9

Currently i'm 100% missing the "OEM unlock" toggle. No amount of changing date and queuing the update will help as is a Canadian carrier with modded rom - G950WVLS8CTI1 i believe.

I could use some guidance from the more experienced than I. Even if to simply tell me there is not currently a viable option for this phone. Newb question- Can Odin flash a rom on the dl screen with a locked bootloader? I'm curious how a rom set by sammobile would work? - https://www.sammobile.com/samsung/galaxy-s8/firmware/SM-G950W/XAC/download/G950WVLS8CTI1/376914/ As i recall that was the solution to getting past this same issue with my old Samsung S5. I followed a guide on that and likely different circumstances on my S8 phone now.

Security is of concern so root modding with online service seems too sketchy to me, both in terms of the phone and the credit card required. I think sammobile would be pretty secure if solution was applying their rom if possible?

Once again, thanks in advance for any who read this far. I appreciate any advice or opinions on anything discussed. Let me know what your thoughts are on service like Volta. There is not unlimited data plans in my province / region. So if their service works then it will be very worth it. I just need a good rooted phone with secure platform to test their app on to know if it works with their carrier sim card installed. They do sell a phone but i'm wading in on a month to month to test first. This service is more or less in beta in my region and they are ruffling feathers (based on bot messaging on youtube results). I'll report my findings here.

Stay free!