FFXIV Testing Stages and Content Release each Stage

Famitsu, a Japanese game website, released many info about Final Fantsy
XIV recently, including an interview with Square Enix and Alpha Test Impressions.

Here we pick up the information about FFXIV future beta test schedule for you.

FFXIV alpha beta test will last for four hours in each region (Japan,Europe and North America) and take place three days a week.

The alpha test is a low-population test running on one server only. The server's name is "Shadowlord." Player's data will be wiped several times due to the test on different speeds of character growth.

Beta test phase one (B1-Manly) will come
follow by the alpha test and take place on multiple servers.

Beta test phase two (B2) servers will run 24
hours a day and the product will be much closer to the finished version.
Meanwhile, The PS3 testing will also start from this version.


Final
Fantasy XIV Gallery

Open beta test will be hold a few weeks right
before the official launch. But only under a fifth of
what will be playable in the final version.
Go ahead and read the translation of alpha beta details on ffxivcore.com.

"The current alpha test version of the game limits play to just the
Limsa Lominsa city-state and its surroundings. This will be the case
throughout the alpha and beta tests. You won't be able to access the
rest of the world until the final version. Limsa Lominsa and its
surroundings account for less than 1/5 of the final version's full
world, according to the staff."

Source:
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/04/10/ffxiv_alpha_beta_schedule/

MMosites get info from FFXIVcore. xD I wont you get it from there? :P
http://www.ffxivcore.com/

Anyway good stuff! :P