Even if you have 100 Mb to the desktop, gig to the NOC from a distributed router or switch is normal, as it allows multiple desktops to go 'full speed' concurrently over the higher speed back haul.
Fiber vs copper... If you are thinking of going beyond 1Gb then fiber is the only game in town from what I can tell. If you only want to 'back haul' from the switches to the central router at your NOC at say 10G at some time, then fiber it needs to be. I helped build a data center at one time, and in each row we had switches with a fiber up-link port that went directly back to the core routers. The router and switches were rated at 1G speeds. We also had copper on the switches on each row to serve the machines in that row of cabinets that did either 100Mb or 1Gb depending on what the client computer used or could handle. It worked well. Another thing we did was to run at least two sets of fiber when one would do for the 'insurance'. When running copper or fiber the manpower seems to be more expensive than the media. In your case, if you are re-running fiber, I might run 2 sets of fiber and 2 runs of copper at the same time. All together it could future proof your setup. Just document for yourself and others as to why you are NOT using all the media that was run.
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