This paper deals with the configuration of a wireless network with the aim of minimizing the overall cost of both operation and network installation. The trade-off between the operation cost and the installation cost is the key consideration when designing cellular telecommunication networks, and can save costs and improve the performance of the network. In this paper, we propose an integrated framework for selecting Mobile Switching Center (MSC) among the candidate MSCs and assigning Base Stations (BSs) to the selected MSCs with the objective function of minimizing the cost of MSC setup, BS to MSC cabling, as well as the cost of handover. Capacity constraint for the selected MSC is also considered in the problem. The problem is expressed in an integer programming model and the Lagrangian relaxation method is proposed to solve the problem by dualizing some constraints. The Lagrangian relaxed problem is decomposed into subproblems that can be resolved optimally. The Lagrangian heuristic algorithm is suggested to find feasible solutions to the original problem. Computational experiments are performed to test the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed heuristic algorithm. In the experiments, Lagrangian bounds on the optimal solution are used to show the effectiveness of the algorithm. The results of the proposed algorithm are also compared with those of some conventional meta-heuristics, Tabu search (TS) and Genetic algorithm (GA). The computational experiments show that the performance of the proposed heuristics is satisfactory in both the speed and the quality of the solution generated.