GFrazier posting on Blizzard's official forums gave a brief update on when to expect beta to start.
The beta is expected to begin sometime in Q3 (Sometime between August and October). It will be done in stages. That is all the information we have at this time, please watch the World of Warcraft site for any news.
no problemo Blizzard games are exceptionally good mostly, I hope this WoW is worth the wait. (and yeah they drag this project a bit too long like Diablo2 ) BTW congrats on the moderatorship