Yes the node could be at the end of your street, or servicing a number of streets - it would vary and depend on the best outcome for getting the fiber to the node from the exchange.
No, your retail service provider will still connect from the node to the premise (house etc) but it will vary in the technology, ie, could be fiber, copper ADSL, wireless, cable etc. This makes it a much more realistic solution for our vast country.
I understand that 100Mb/s can now be achieved on a copper phone line for a distance of 1km!
I am not against fiber, just the "one fits all solution" at $40B+ with out a business model!
