First, who we are: we are Beijing Siwen Lide, based in Shunyi, and we have spent 14 years on enterprise network equipment packages, Low-Voltage & Cabling Projects, and IT operations outsourcing. Wireless coverage for offices and workshops is one of the projects we do most every year.This article answers one very specific question: if your company’s office WiFi in Beijing works poorly, what kind of provider should you hire, where does the money on the quote actually go, and what should you check at acceptance to know the job was really done properly.
WiFi is the thing offices most easily settle for: during renovation, two home routers get installed, and they work fine while few people are around. Once there are more people and more partitions, connections start dropping, screen casting in the meeting room freezes halfway, and employees simply turn on their phone hotspots. By the time it starts affecting work and someone thinks to call in a professional, the problem is usually no longer something a new router can fix.
Four Options Available in Beijing
| Option | Characteristics | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Buy your own home routers or Mesh | Cheapest, and it arrives the same day if you order online. But roaming relies on each vendor’s proprietary protocol, nodes interfere with one another once there are many of them, it cannot hold up with dozens of people online at once, there is no guest isolation, and there is no one to call when something goes wrong | Small offices with fewer than ten people, a single room, and no real demand for stability |
| 2. Have a renovation or low-voltage contractor do it on the side | They install the APs while running the cabling. Positions are usually estimated as “a few per floor,” with no site survey, no channel tuning, and no roaming configuration, and they leave as soon as the installation is done | Companies with a simple layout, few partitions, and someone on staff who understands networks to sign off on the work |
| 3. A vendor or systems integrator solution | Quoted as a branded solution; the equipment is good and the design is formal, but it is usually handled project by project, with ongoing maintenance under a separate contract | Whole buildings, campuses, organizations with several hundred people or more, or those with a mandated brand |
| 4. An enterprise network service provider (this is what we are) | We survey first, then decide AP locations and quantities: enterprise-grade controller plus APs, wired backhaul, and separate office and guest networks. After installation the system is brought into routine IT operations, and the equipment is provided and warranted for the term of the contract | Offices, workshops, and stores with dozens to two or three hundred people that need stability, uninterrupted roaming, and someone to manage it afterwards |
None of the four is inherently better or worse; it comes down to scale and requirements. Ten people in one room: a decent router is enough. Several hundred people in a whole building: go with an integrator. Dozens to two or three hundred people, with meeting rooms and partitions, and someone needed to manage it afterwards: options three and four both work, and the difference is who is responsible once the installation is finished.
Where the Money Goes: What Makes Up an Enterprise Wireless Quote
The most eye-catching item on a quote is the unit price of the APs, but APs are usually not the biggest line item. Understanding the five parts below is what lets you compare quotes from different providers on equal footing.
- Survey and design: an on-site visit to measure signal, examine partition materials, and calculate user density, then determine AP locations, quantities, and antenna types, and produce a placement plan and heat map. This is the item most often skipped; skip it and you are back to “a few per floor,” and whether there are dead spots only becomes clear once people start using the network.
- APs and controller: ceiling-mounted, wall-plate, outdoor, and industrial-grade models all differ; quantities follow the survey results, not a formula based on floor area. The controller handles unified management and roaming.
- Switches and power: APs need wired backhaul and power over the network cable, so the switch must have enough ports and enough power capacity. This item is often calculated together with cabling.
- Cabling and installation: one network cable from each AP to the low-voltage room, routed through the ceiling, with drilling and mounting. Doing this after renovation is finished noticeably raises this share of the cost.
- Commissioning and handover: channel planning, power adjustment, roaming parameters, office and guest network separation, and authentication methods, followed by on-site measurement of signal and throughput in every area and an acceptance report.
Order-of-magnitude reference:we published a public range on our Beijing Enterprise Wireless WiFi Deployment page, covering equipment, installation, and commissioning:
- 50 to 100 people, a single-floor office or small workshop, 12 to 20 APs, about RMB 80,000–150,000, 5 to 7 working days.
- 100 to 300 people, a multi-floor office building, hotel, or mid-sized factory, 30 to 60 APs, about RMB 180,000–350,000, 10 to 15 working days.
An office of a few dozen people that only needs a few additional APs on the existing cabling will come in far below that. The exact figure depends on the plan produced after an on-site survey. (Reference as of September 2026; not a binding quotation.)
Five Questions to Ask Before You Sign
- Will you survey the site in person?Anyone who quotes a number of APs without seeing the site will leave you with dead spots or wasted equipment. Glass partitions and solid walls affect signal in completely different ways, and an open floor plan versus small partitioned rooms can require twice as many APs.
- Is it wired backhaul?When APs relay to one another wirelessly, the more nodes there are, the slower it gets. In a business environment, every AP should have its own cable.
- How are the office and guest networks separated?The guest WiFi must not reach the internal network. At minimum you need separate networks and different authentication methods; do not hand out the office WiFi password to visitors.
- How is roaming guaranteed?Walking from a desk to the meeting room must not drop a video call. Ask which controller is used, whether roaming protocols are enabled, and how it will be tested at acceptance.
- Who manages it after installation?Who reboots an AP when it hangs, who adds coverage when a new group of people arrives and the signal is not enough, who changes the guest password. If your provider leaves as soon as the job is done, all of that falls on you.
Four Typical Problems We Have Seen
- Full bars, but nothing opens.A workshop of several thousand square meters with two home routers: the corner shows full bars, yet the ticketing system simply will not load. A strong signal does not mean a usable one; once there are more people and more interference, throughput drops to single digits.
- It drops at the stairwell.One router per floor with the same SSID, yet devices do not switch automatically; employees describe it as “once you are on WiFi you cannot take the stairs.” This is the classic symptom of having no unified controller or roaming configuration.
- APs installed in the worst possible places.To save a single cable run, the AP goes by the low-voltage room door or at the end of a corridor, leaving the main work area to rely on signal “leaking” through.
- Guests and staff on the same network.Visitors connect to the WiFi and can reach printers and shared folders. No one realizes it is a problem, until something goes missing one day.
What to Check at Acceptance
- Measure every area: workstations, meeting rooms, reception, the break room, the stairwell. Test signal and throughput with a phone or laptop, not just the spot directly under the AP.
- Walk-test the roaming: start a video call or a continuous download and walk from one end to the other; it must not drop along the way.
- Test again at peak hours: is throughput still sufficient when the most people are in? Numbers measured in an empty office do not count.
- Verify guest network isolation: from the guest WiFi, try to reach printers and internal systems. You should not be able to.
- Complete documentation: AP placement maps, the ID and location of every AP, management accounts and an acceptance report, handed over to the company.
What we can do, and what we are not the right fit for
- On-site survey and design: we measure the actual signal and look at partitions and headcount density, then produce AP placement maps and heat maps, selecting different APs and mounting methods for offices, workshops, warehouses and retail stores.
- Enterprise-grade controllers plus APs: wired backhaul, unified management and seamless roaming, with the office network separated from the guest network; the equipment is supplied and covered by warranty for the contract term.
- One set of drawings together with cabling and switches: for new office fit-outs we do it all in one go, saving a round of channeling; for office retrofits we first inventory the existing network cabling and keep using whatever is still serviceable.
- Management continues after installation: APs are brought into routine inspections, disconnections raise alerts, and adding staff or access points or changing the guest password all go through the same service request channel.
- Acceptance backed by real measurements: every area is tested, roaming is tested while walking through the space, and an acceptance report is handed over.
- Ultra-high-density venues such as stadiums and large exhibition halls — engage an integrator with specialist experience in these environments.
- Outdoor coverage across dozens of buildings on a single campus — engage a large integrator and go through a formal tender process.
- If you just want to buy a few routers and install them yourself — buying online is more cost-effective; we do not sell retail equipment.
Frequently asked questions
Q: For a 60-person office, roughly how many APs are needed, and what will it cost?
A: It depends on the layout. An open-plan floor may need only six or seven, while a heavily partitioned space may need a dozen or more. If we reuse the existing cabling and only add APs and controllers, it is in the range of tens of thousands of RMB; if cabling and switches are replaced as well, refer to the published guidance on the wireless page above. Only an on-site visit allows an accurate quote, and site visits are free of charge.(Reference as of September 2026; not a binding quotation.)
Q: Don’t mesh routers also cover a large area — so why are they not recommended for offices?
A: Mesh is designed for homes. The APs relay to one another wirelessly, so as nodes multiply both speed and stability drop; different brands cannot be mixed, and there is no enterprise-grade guest isolation or authentication. With twenty or thirty people online at once, it starts to struggle.
Q: The workshop has a lot of metal equipment and the signal is always poor — what can be done?
A: Start with a survey: place APs away from metal racks and large equipment, choose industrial-grade APs, and use directional antennas where necessary. For dead spots that cannot be covered otherwise, fill them in with a wireless bridge. In scenarios like this it is even more important not to estimate the number of APs from floor area.
Q: We already have a WiFi setup — can it be adjusted rather than replaced?
A: Yes. We start by inventorying the existing APs and cabling. A common situation is that the equipment is fine but its placement and configuration are wrong; repositioning the APs, adding a controller and enabling roaming solves the majority of the problems, and we add only what is actually needed.
Office WiFi keeps dropping?
Siwenlide has been delivering complete enterprise network packages for 14 years, with wireless, cabling, network equipment and the ongoing IT operations that follow all handled by the same team. We can start with a free on-site signal survey, then provide a placement map and a quote. Call 400-686-2011.
Further reading:Choosing a structured cabling contractor for Beijing offices · Choosing a CCTV and access control installer for Beijing companies · Beijing enterprise wireless WiFi deployment services and pricing · How to equip a new office’s IT from scratch
