There is provided an optical signal transmission apparatus having a stable dispersion compensation function without unnecessarily controlling a compensation value even when a main signal quality is deteriorated due to a factor other than dispersion or in the case of a transmission failure. When it is determined that a signal quality is deteriorated due to dispersion of a fiber by determining a control mode of a variable dispersion compensator by means of optical noise information and received power information in addition to bit error information of a received signal, a compensation value of the variable dispersion compensator is varied and a compensation value other than the dispersion of the optical fiber is held to an existing set value.