In response to successful challenges to contractually determined wholesale rates, rising revenue requirements, and growing demands for rate equity, the City of Austin, Texas has scheduled implementation of "cost-based" rates in November 1992. Rate alternatives derived from a comprehensive cost-of-service analysis will largely reflect revenue responsibility assignments determined from analysis of hourly water demand data collected on the City's major customer classes. Austin's hourly monitoring project will include deployment of almost 100 meters to sites selected to ensure statistical representation of customer class demands. Three types of metering equipment, selected to minimize total data collection costs while guaranteeing sufficient data resolution, will collect data directly transferable to a relational database. This database will, in turn, support analyses of class contributions to peak day, peak hour and average daily demands. Preliminary results of summer 1990 monitoring of selected wholesale and high-tech industrial customers suggest that important opportunities exist for rate design improvements to limit claims on system capacity, improve system operating efficiency and send appropriate "cost-based" price signals. Additionally, monitoring of like customer types (i.e., high-tech manufacturers) currently within larger customer classes will suggest opportunities for restructuring of Austin's customer class divisions.