Chromatic dispersion accumulated over a link of optical fiber causes transmission degradation for data rates of 10 Gb/s and higher. The technologies for compensating this effect are reviewed. They are compared based on their suitability for different applications. Characteristics such as dispersion matching to the transport fiber, tunability, insertion loss, bandwidth and size are discussed. Tunability is of increasing importance as the future networks become more and more agile and reconfigurable. Fine tuning is also a requirement at data rates of 40 Gbit/s and higher. Recent developments are presented and future trends are discussed.