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Cell radius follows from the link budget against a path loss model whose exponent captures the environment: about 2.8 in open rural terrain rising to over 4 in dense urban clutter. A hexagonal cell of radius r covers 2.598 r squared. Higher frequencies suffer greater reference loss, which is why 700 MHz cells cover far more area than 3.5 GHz cells at the same power.
Cell radius
budget = EIRP - receiver sensitivity; reference loss at 1 km = 32.45 + 20log10(f_MHz); radius = 10^((budget - reference) / (10n)); hex area = 2.598 r^2
Path loss rises with frequency and penetration through buildings and foliage is much worse, so a 3.5 GHz cell may be a fraction of the radius of a 700 MHz cell.
In cities, capacity. Cells are placed far closer than coverage requires so the available spectrum is reused more often.