Greece and Ireland have announced exciting initiatives to fund open
access optical metropolitan networks to accelerate and promote the use of
broadband in their respective countries.  The broadband networks will
promote facilities based competition, particularly in environments where
there is only one large monopoly service provider. Schools, hospitals and
other public sector institutions will be the initial major beneficiaries.
Many of the networks are being built in partnership with national
university research networks.

Greece is planning to spend 36m Euros on 69 municipal optical networks.
Ireland has committed 65m Euro on 19 municipal optical networks. 90
additional networks are planned with a commitment of 105m Euro from the
government.  The net effect will be double the national stock of open
access fiber in Ireland.

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/28/17/33864928.pdf

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/28/18/33864920.pdf