Q-Free facts for kids
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| Allmennaksjeselskap | |
| Traded as | OSE: QFR |
| Industry | Technology |
| Founded | 1984 |
| Headquarters | Trondheim, Norway |
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Key people
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Trond Christensen (CEO) |
| Products | Intelligent Traffic Systems |
| Revenue | 1 billion NOK/ 120 million USD |
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Number of employees
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approximately 380 employees |
Q-Free ASA (often called Q-Free) is a company from Norway. They create smart solutions for traffic. This includes systems for paying tolls, managing traffic flow, and connecting vehicles. Their main office is in Trondheim, Norway.
Q-Free has about 380 employees. They work in 17 offices around the world. The company's shares were traded on the Oslo Stock Exchange from 2002 until December 2023. At that time, it became a privately owned company.
Contents
How Q-Free Helps Traffic
Q-Free has offices in many parts of the world. This includes Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. They sell systems that make electronic toll collection easy. This means people can pay to use roads without stopping. They also help manage traffic jams and control parking.
Q-Free uses special technologies to do this.
- DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communication) helps cars talk to road systems.
- OCR (image processing) and ALPR (Automatic License Plate Recognition) are like smart cameras. They can read license plates quickly.
- GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) uses satellites to know where things are. It works like GPS.
The company also makes systems to control traffic lights. They help manage how cars move on busy roads.
Q-Free's Journey Through Time
Starting Small: Micro Design
The company began in 1984. It was first known as Micro Design AS. In 1988, Q-Free's electronic toll technology was installed in Trondheim. Two years later, it was set up in Oslo. These early systems were the start of Norway's current AutoPASS technology.
Growing Internationally
Q-Free made its first international delivery in 1995. This was to Portugal. In 1997, a European standard for electronic toll collection was created. This helped Q-Free expand even more. The company changed its name to Q-Free in 1998.
