How To Expand Your Office’s Wireless Network

As your business grows, so does the demand on your wireless network. Whether you’re welcoming new team members, shifting to a hybrid work model, expanding into a larger space, moving to a new floor, or simply frustrated by lagging speeds and dead zones, your current setup might not be keeping up. Poor connectivity, lagging speeds, or dead zones can quickly disrupt productivity and frustrate your team.

If you’re wondering how to expand your wireless network effectively, this guide walks you through what to consider and how to make the right improvements, without overcomplicating the process, overspending, or relying on outdated technology.

Start With a Smart Network Assessment

Before making any changes, assess how your current wireless network is performing. Many office networks are built without planning, with outdated routers, using outdated cabling, and with no attention to documenting design and build specifications.

Some questions to consider:

Are there areas where the signal regularly drops?
Are employees experiencing slow upload/download speeds?
Do video calls or large file transfers lag?
Are staff reporting unreliable connections or dropped calls?
Are your current access points overloaded with too many devices?
Is your existing hardware (access points, switches, cabling) nearing end-of-life (4-5 years)?
Has your office layout or headcount changed significantly?

Don’t just guess—run a wireless site survey to identify weak coverage zones and interference hotspots.

You may also like to read: [Is Your Network Gear at End of Life?]

Map Out Your Physical Office Layout and Understand How It Affects Performance

Your wireless network doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Furniture placement, wall materials, and the general layout of your space can all affect signal strength and network performance. Glass-walled boardrooms, concrete columns, elevator shafts—these can all interfere with the wireless signal.

If you’ve renovated recently or plan to reconfigure your floor plan, take the time to map out where wireless access is needed most. Break rooms, meeting spaces, shared workstations, remote corners of the office, and high-traffic zones may all require separate consideration. This is especially true in larger office spaces or warehouses, where one or two access points simply aren’t enough.

Create a physical map of:

Where strong and weak connections exist
Where people actually work (not just where desks are located)
Meeting rooms, break areas, and high-traffic zones

A growing team or newly reconfigured space may require a completely new wireless strategy.

Add Access Points — But Don’t Just “Add More” Without a Plan

When expanding your wireless network, it’s a common mistake to think that simply adding more routers or access points will automatically improve coverage. In reality, adding APs without a professional design often causes more problems than it solves, including signal interference, channel congestion, and inconsistent speeds.

Instead, a wireless site survey should be conducted first to:

Determine the optimal placement of new access points
Balance coverage overlap to avoid both dead zones and excessive interference
Calculate bandwidth demand per area or department
Map out channel usage to prevent APs from stepping on each other’s signals

When expanding your network, we recommend:

✔️ Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E access points — Higher efficiency and device density support

✔️ Commercial/Business-grade APs — Built for office environments with centralized management tools

✔️ Mesh networking (where appropriate) — For large or irregularly shaped spaces

✔️ Wired backhaul — Reliable, interference-free connections between APs

Important:

More access points do not automatically equal better performance. In fact, improperly placed APs can create interference zones that make the network slower, not faster.

Upgrade Your Cabling Infrastructure (If Needed): Your Structured Cabling

Your wireless network is only as strong as the infrastructure feeding it. If you’re running high-bandwidth access points on old or insufficient cabling, you’re creating bottlenecks. If your office is still utilizing older cabling—such as Cat5 or older—it might be time for an upgrade. Adding more WAPs and increasing bandwidth will only work as well as the cabling that supports them.

Modern structured cabling (such as Cat6 or Cat6A) is designed to manage higher speeds, increased data loads, and better future-proofing. When planning an expansion, it’s worth evaluating:

Are you still using Cat5 or early Cat6 cable?
Do you have enough switch ports and power for new access points?
Is your server room clean, labelled, and scalable?

CORE Cabling often recommends Cat6A or fibre for modern office environments, especially where speed, future-proofing, or Power over Ethernet (PoE) is needed. Investing in a solid structured cabling backbone ensures your expanded wireless network is reliable and scalable.

Read: [7 Things to Consider When Hiring a Structured Cabling Company]

Consider Network Segmentation and Security

As more devices connect to your network, especially with IoT or BYOD policies, security becomes even more critical. As more devices (and more types of devices) connect to your wireless network—phones, laptops, printers, security cameras, even thermostats—you need segmentation to keep performance high and data secure. A segmented network allows you to create separate access for guests, staff, and internal systems—reducing risk and improving performance.

Consider:

VLANs (Virtual LANs) to isolate guest access from staff and separate CCTV and Wireless traffic
Firewall and endpoint protection to secure mobile and remote users
Monitoring and diagnostics tools to detect problems early

Ask your network professional about VLANs (virtual LANs), firewalls, and remote access management as part of your expansion strategy.

Test, Monitor, and Optimize

Once your new access points and cabling are installed, don’t just “set it and forget it.” Ongoing testing and network monitoring ensure everything is working as expected.

Look for:

Consistent speed and coverage across all areas
Signal strength on multiple devices
Minimal interference or connectivity issues
Capacity for increased usage

Tools like Ekahau heatmaps, speed tests, and network diagnostics can help fine-tune your system after installation.

Explore Advanced Options: Private Cellular and Beyond

For large spaces, dense traffic, or high-security environments, consider stepping beyond Wi-Fi entirely.

Private Cellular Networks (PCNs) offer:

✔️ Dedicated LTE/5G bandwidth

✔️ Greater security and control

✔️ Improved coverage in hard-to-wire areas

✔️ Compatibility with industrial or IoT devices

They’re ideal for warehouses, logistics centres, or any office with demanding network needs.

CORE Cabling: Your Partner for Seamless Network Expansion

At CORE Cabling, we specialize in structured cabling and wireless network solutions for growing businesses. Whether you’re expanding into a new office or need to optimize your current setup, we offer turnkey network expansion services that are fast, professional, and built to scale.

Our turnkey services include:

From site surveys to cabling and wireless access point installations, our team ensures your network is ready to support your next phase of growth.

Ready to get started? Request a Quote today or contact us to speak with a specialist about your office network needs. Let’s build a wireless network that works as hard as your team does.

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