What is the difference between "unique locations" and "unique numbers"?

There is a big difference between a vISP Provider offering a number of "unique locations" and another offering a number of "unique numbers." Your understanding of the difference can help you avoid unhappy surprises.

Unique Locations - A vISP Provider that offers a specific number of "unique locations" general takes each number in their dial-up phonebook and then lists every city or community that can call this number without incurring a charge. This means that many locations use the same number. So the quantity of "unique numbers" offered by the vISP Provider are far less. One network provider offered Alliance over 50,000 unique locations. After deleting duplicate phone numbers, the list was less than 6,000 numbers.

Unique Numbers - A vISP Provider that offers a specific number of "unique numbers" is actually offering several times that quantity in "unique locations" as each number has many locations that call each number without incurring long distance charges. The Alliance ISP Solution includes well over 35,000 "unique numbers."

Important Note:
In addition to having far less numbers than you expect, there is another issue with using "unique locations". If any of the locations turn out to be a toll call from the city listed, the virtual ISP can be responsible for the long distance charges since they advertise it as a "local" number. With "unique numbers" it is up to the subscriber to determine whether or not it is a toll call.