# Long number (virtual mobile number)

> A long number, or virtual mobile number, is a standard-length phone number used as an SMS sender so that recipients can reply, rented per country from a gateway.

A long number looks like an ordinary mobile number and behaves like one for messaging: it can send, receive replies and be saved in a contact list. It is the practical way to get two-way traffic in a country without a short code, and the only way in markets where alphanumeric names are replaced.

Numbers are national, so a campaign to ten countries that needs replies needs ten numbers. Where only one-way traffic is needed, a shared numeric sender assigned by the gateway does the job at no cost.

At SMSMeteor: a two-way number can be added per destination on a campaign; without it, the platform assigns a shared numeric sender automatically where names are not delivered.

Related terms: [Dedicated number](https://smsmeteor.com/glossary/dedicated-number), [Two-way SMS](https://smsmeteor.com/glossary/two-way-sms), [Numeric sender ID](https://smsmeteor.com/glossary/numeric-sender-id)

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Source: https://smsmeteor.com/glossary/long-number (HTML). Generated by SMSMeteor from the same data as the page. Summary of the whole site: https://smsmeteor.com/llms.txt