READING, UK, Oct. 26 -- 186k, the telecoms subsidiary of Lattice Group, opened for business this week with the launch of the southern and central rings of its national core network. Two final rings, London and the north, are set to go live by the end of 2001. 186k will deliver the highest bandwidth capacity of any UK telecommunications operator, with a network connecting twenty towns and cities across the UK, from Glasgow to Bristol, and connecting to metropolitan area networks across the major business centres of London, Birmingham and Manchester. The company will initially target wholesale and major corporate customers with a blend of high-performance, high-reliability bandwidth backed by a commitment to fast and flexible customer service that helped the company win two major contracts before the network went live. This week 186k was also awarded a ten-year contract by NCP Manchester Limited (NML) to supply state-of-the-art network infrastructure to link its Manchester car parks with sophisticated CCTV systems.