Comment by ac29

The biggest advantage to the cellular bands is that they are exclusively licensed, so noise is a non-issue, or at least an issue that you are in control of, since you are the only one allowed to build infrastructure in a given area.

Cell carriers have a wide variety of bands they can deploy, from frequencies above 1GHz, which doesn't propagate well through free space or obstructions, but allows for high-density, high-bandwidth use, to frequencies below 1GHz (600, 700 and 800MHz bands in the US), which propagate well in free space and reasonably well around and through obstructions (but cant be deployed with as high a density, since signals propagate well).

That being said, the infrastructure is the biggest advantage.

My gut says that absent FCC regulations and allocations, for wide area coverage something like 500-900 MHz is an ideal spot between propagation and required antenna size. Guess where TV stations are (historically at least)?