Bragg grating in optical fibers are used to compensate the dispersion of optical pulses in telecommunication systems. Initially, an overview is presented of the existing fabrication techniques of such gratings, as well as the techniques used for characterization. Some useful applecations in telecommunications and sensing are also shown. The results obtained in the set-up to write and to characterize Bragg gratings are presented. Some measurements were also done with typical applications such as controlling the emitting wavelength in semiconductors lasers, and monitoring the applied pressure in an optical fiber. Some new results are described on dispersion compensation in fibers. Using specially chirped Bragg gratings to pre- compensatedispersion of an optical pulse in a 80 km fiber link, we demonstrated that the poor quality of the input laser pulses has little impact on the duration of the pulses recovered after transmission. Finally, an interferometric switching arrangement using a semiconductor coated D fiber as nonlinear control element, is presented. The configuration uses infrared optical pulses to control a continuous wave light signal. It is also shown that the original reflected wavelength of a semiconductor coated D-fiber with Bragg grating can be shited with an external optical control signal.