A policy of some Internet service providers (ISPs) that imposes bandwidth restrictions on users who exhibit patterns of system usage that exceed certain thresholds for extended periods of time. Direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers offering two-way Internet access have fair use policies in place as bandwidth is so highly limited and a small number of highly active users can consume large amounts of bandwidth, leaving little for consumption by others. More traditional terrestrial ISPs in various countries (e.g.,Australia and South Africa) have similar policies with respect to international usage such as web surfing and file transfers. See also bandwidth, DBS, Internet, and ISP.