The use of cellular systems enhanced by fixed relayshas previously been proposed as a way to provide wide areacoverage for high bit-rate at a reduced cost of the wireless accessnetwork. In this paper1 three amplify-and-forward relayingschemes are analysed on the downlink, in a scenario where95% coverage has to be provided for a predefined bit-rate in atypical urban environment. Numeric results show that combiningdiversity, such as SIMO has only marginal gains over selectiondiversity when only one relay is used. The use of transmissiondiversity for the MIMO relaying scheme reduces the base stationdensity, but the relaying gain is comparable with the onesfor selection and SIMO. With the random (unplanned) relaydeployment considered in this study, 0.03 to 0.15 base stationsare saved for each deployed relay. This means that the cost of arelay can be at most 3 to 15% the cost of a base station. Thehighest reduction is achieved when micro base stations are used.