Company History
2009:
Q-Free’s market position strengthened significantly in 2009.
January 1st Q-Free ASA acquired Building Capital Ltd, located in London, UK. Building Capital Ltd was founded in 2002 and has attained high competence and extensive experience within the tolling industry. The company has references throughout Europe within Road User Charging general, and GNSS (e.g. GPS) based solutions in particular.
Q-Free has been awarded several major contracts in 2009. The major ones include the following:
In January SkyToll signed a contract with Q-FREE ASA for the delivery of central system, enforcement system and a 3 year service agreement for GPS based truck tolling system in the Slovak Republic with value of approximately 50 million Euros. The project for Slovakia`s electronic tolling system is unique by international standards as the state-of-the-art satellite tolling technology covers, in addition to highways and expressways, also large sections of first class routes.
Q-Free signed a contract with Bangkok Expressway Company Ltd (BECL) in February 2009. The contract implied a modernization of an existing road tolling system. In August Q-Free ASA was awarded an AutoPASS-contract by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA). The contract comprised delivery and installation of 10 fully automated toll stations in addition to an upgrade of existing toll stations surrounding Trondheim and service and maintenance.
In August Q-Free ASA also received an order from the Spanish Company GRUPO FERROVIAL S.A. related to its concessionaire in Portugal - EUROSCUT NORTE S.A., owned by the Spanish company CINTRA, S.A. Currently the concession is operational under the shadow tolling scheme (SCUT), and will be transformed into a fully operational Multi Lane Free Flow tolling system (MLFF). FERROVIAL is a new customer of Q-Free in Portugal and as such an important expansion for the company.
2008:
Q-Free aquired Dacolian, a company developing software for Intelligent Transport Systems. The aquisition strengthened Q-Free's position as a leading company within the road user charging market, and enabled the offering of a broader range of solutions and competence as Dacolian also utilize their solution for other applications scuh as travel time estimation, access control, law enforcement and surveillance. To further broaden the product portfolio and to be able to offer the market the best solutions for the applications at hand, Q-Free also purchased 100% of the shares of Building Capital Ltd. The company has references throughout Europe within Road User Charging in General and GNSS ((e.g GPS) based solutions in particular. GNSS based solutions will be important going forward Q-Free is now one of the main players for supplying cashless tolling based on DSRC (tag) and ALPS (camera). Through combining Building capital's proven GNSS technology, industry network and Q-Free experience, Q-free is able to quickly bring to market an advanced GNSS based road user charging offering at the right time.
2006:
Contracted to supply the transport infrastructure to the Winter Olympics in Turin. In collaboration with GTT (Turin's public transport company) and its partner Ativa, the Italian highway operator Sitaf devised a system called Si.Pass - Europe's first integrated public and private transport system payable via one tolling method.
2004:
Q-Free won its largest contract ever with IBM to supply all tolling equipment to the Stockholm Congestion Charging project. In the last half of the year, the company managed to break into the Chilean tolling market with large contracts for its On Board Units.
2002:
Q-Free carried out an IPO and was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange on 3 April 2002.
2001:
Q-Free acquired 53% of Noca Assembly AS.
2000:
Q-Free entered the Australian market and created a new subsidiary company.
1999:
Q-Free entered the tolling market in Brazil with orders for tolling equipment to the state of Sao Paulo. Q-Free acquired Nera Mobildata's ticketing division.
1998:
In 1998, Micro Design AS changed its name to Q-Free ASA. Q-Free entered the market in China and Holland and expanded into new business areas with the creation of two new divisions: Q-Free Access and Q-Free Ticketing. New subsidiaries were established in Malaysia and Brazil and a representative office in China was opened. Norway's first installation of integrated smart card based ticketing was awarded to Q-Free's Ticketing division.
1997:
The common European standard for Electronic Toll Collection, based on 5.8 GHz, was introduced. The world's first automatic environmental charging system was installed in Austria using Q-Free equipment.
1995:
In 1995, Micro Design AS had its first international breakthrough - installing the Q-Free system and establishing the first Q-Free subsidiary in Portugal. Over the course of the next four years the company moved into new European markets and worldwide into Malaysia, China, Australia and Brazil.
1994:
Micro Design AS achieved certification for ISO 9001:2000.
1991:
5.8 GHz was proposed as the new standard in Europe for radio communications for tolling systems.
1990:
The Q-Free Tolling System was installed in Oslo.
1988:
The first Q-Free Tolling System was installed in Trondheim.
1986:
Micro Design's first real breakthrough when it was awarded the contract with Statens Vegvesen (Norwegian Public Roads Administration) for the development of the "Q-Free" Tolling System.
1984:
The company was established under the name 'Micro Design AS'.
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