starting to charge at SW: TOR release is a horrid idea
FFXIV attracted a lot of people into "story" since the FF series and FFXI were story heavy.
SW: TOR is pretty well the newest MMO out there and heavily story driven. It also has a huge amount of preorders.
Starting to charge right when a competitor is releasing a much better rated product is a really bad idea business wise
On the other hand the "new" version of the game looks -epic.- It would seem a much better idea to start charging -then- rather than now and lose subscriptions.