The free to level 15 doesn't necessarily herald a F2P move I think. WoW has had a free to play trial for quite some time as well, and SWTOR may just be taking a hat trick from one of the industry leaders. The designers at Bioware Austin have also never kept back the fact that they had a F2P plan for a contingency but that they would have to dip well below 400k subscribers for that to become a practical model financially. What with the last news (the EA shareholders meeting) reporting current subscription levels being at approximately 1.3million I don't see us getting down to below 400k anytime soon.

Good news and bad news I'd say. I'd love for F2P just for affordability, but I can't actually say that I believe it'll happen anytime in the near future (maybe a few years down the road...)