We report on a MQW electroabsorption modulator with tensile-strained wells. The device transmission is shown to be fully polarization insensitive, i.e. both in amplitude and phase. The modulation efficiency is over 20 GHz/V (bandwidth higher than 20 GHz and 1 V drive voltage) which is the highest figure of merit reported for any kind of polarization insensitive modulator. Full polarization independence is further demonstrated by 2.5 Gb/s transmission at 1.55 mum over 475 km of standard fiber without penalty at 10(-9) BER whatever the polarization.