Summary:
Ericsson U.S. is deploying a private 5G network in large production facilities including Hitachi Rail’s New Maryland Plant and LG Electronics Tennessee Factory. The company looks to strengthen its presence in the 5G sector. These advanced networks are designed for power automation, maintenance and digital operation of the upcoming generation.
Ericsson Powers Hitachi Rail’s Smart Manufacturing with Private 5G
Ericsson partners with Globalogic, a private 5G network in a 307,000 square foot plant of Hitachi Rail in Hagerstown, Maryland. Opening in September 2025, the facility can produce up to 20 rail cars per month. The 5G powered setup will serve as a digital backbone for the factory, which will enable automatic quality observations, forecast maintenance and digital twin technology to improve the efficiency of the product.
Expanding Footprint: LG Electronics’ 5G Factory in Tennessee
According to SNS Telecom & IT’s research director Asad Khan, the Hitachi plant is one of several large-scale private 5G deployments by Ericsson in the U.S. Another major project includes LG Electronics home appliance factory in Clarksville, Tennessee, where around 50 CBRS small cells have been installed.
Due to reliability issues, the deployment was replaced by Wi-Fi, especially affecting automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMR) of which 200 operate in the facility. Private 5G network now guarantees high operational uptime for seamless connectivity and smart factory systems.
Ericsson Targets Industrial Digital Transformation
Ericsson’s focus is on deploying a private 5G network in a big manufacturing environment. This is a major step in industrial automation and digital transformation. The company aims to create a reliable, high-performance connectivity for industries depending on Robotics, IoT and real-time data analytics-key pillars of Industry 4.0.
