A long haul optical fiber transmission system includes a transmitter, a receiver optically coupled to the transmitter with at least two composite optical fiber spans, at least one amplifier between each composite optical fiber span, each composite optical fiber span having a length of at least 50 km. Each composite optical fiber span also includes a first optical fiber and a second optical fiber. When the second optical fiber has positive dispersion at a wavelength of 1550 nm, the composite optical fiber span has, at a wavelength of 1550 nm, an average attenuation of less than 0.180 dB/km. When the second optical fiber has negative dispersion at a wavelength of 1550 nm, the composite optical fiber span has, at a wavelength of 1550 nm, an average dispersion with a magnitude from about 2 to about 5 ps/nm/km, an average attenuation of less than 0.205 dB/km, and each composite optical fiber span has an average dispersion slope with a magnitude less than about 0.02 ps/nm2/km.