Frequencies are allocated to plural base stations for managing cells of a cellular wireless telephone network by a computer which for a given cell, allocates a frequency associated with an estimated minimal interference, and selects another cell of remaining cells to be processed. The computer (1) develops a chain of downstream cells within mutual radio range by repeating the above steps for each cell, (2) compares estimated interference levels with a threshold, (3) defines a remainder of cells by eliminating from the remaining set of plural cells to be processed, cells associated with an interference level less than the threshold, (4) develops a first segment of a chain of cells of allocated frequencies when the remaining cells have been defined, and (5) develops a second chain segment by allocating frequencies to the unprocessed remaining cells by searching for other frequencies to be allocated to the remaining cells by iterating these steps until no cells remain.