- Ericsson has deployed a 5G private network at a new Hitachi Rail plant
- This is supposed to help workers produce up to 20 rail cars per month
- Ericsson is trying to compete with Nokia, which is the largest private network supplier in the Western world
Ericsson is going after larger factories and facilities in the United States with private 5G, analyst firm SNS Telecom & IT told Fierce.
To that end, Ericsson and GlobalLogic recently deployed private 5G in Hitachi Rail's new plant in Hagerstown, Maryland. The 5G network will serve as the digital foundation for the 307,000 square foot factory, Ericsson said, enabling predictive maintenance, automated quality inspections and digital twins.
The new plant was opened in September 2025. It produces up to 20 rail cars per month.
SNS's 5G research director Asad Khan told Fierce that this is by no means the only large private 5G factory deployment that Ericsson has been involved with. "Hitachi Rail's Hagerstown facility is among the larger, but not the largest, private 5G-enabled digital factories," Khan said.
Large factories
"Another large U.S. facility where Ericsson has supplied a private 5G network is the LG Electronics home appliance factory in Clarksville, Tennessee," Khan noted. "Spanning around 50 CBRS small cells, LG Electronics' private network deployment was prompted by persistent reliability issues with the facility's Wi-Fi system, particularly for AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) and AMR (Autonomous Mobile Robot) communications. The facility has around 200 AGVs and AMRs."
Khan said SNS Telecom has listed several other large U.S. manufacturing facilities with Ericsson-supplied private 5G networks in its private 5G report and database. These include Ford’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan; Cummins’ JEP (Jamestown Engine Plant) in Lakewood, New York; Toyota Material Handling's production complex in Columbus, Indiana; Tesla's Gigafactory Texas near Austin, Texas; and Ericsson's own USA 5G Smart Factory in Lewisville, Texas.
But Ericsson is not the biggest private network vendor in the United States. Nokia is the largest private network vendor in the Western world, according to Dell'Oro Group with Ericsson coming in second.
Khan noted that Nokia is also involved with large factories in the U.S. where companies have deployed private 5G networks. "For example, Hyundai Motor's gigantic HMGMA (Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America) electrified vehicle plant in Ellabell (Bryan County), Georgia, relies on a Nokia-supplied private 5G network for coordinating hundreds of AMRs and other applications," he said. "Integrated by Future Technologies Venture, the network reportedly covers an area of 5 million square feet within the facility."