A method of determining cells for deletion in a network design, in which the network is simulated to generate statistics for each cell of a given group of cells. The statistics of each cell are evaluated based on a given ranking criteria. Based on the evaluation, the cells of the grouped are ranked, with a highest ranked cell being deleted from the network design based on the ranking criteria. The method may enable the selecting of desired cells for deletion, either during site selection of a design for an initial network deployment, or for a network overlay and upgrade of an existing network, in an effort to reduce cell count while maintaining a desired cell coverage in the network.