British Telecom unit Openreach appointed Brendan Barber and Edward Astle as independent members of a newly formed board to oversee the infrastructure company's strategy, investment and service delivery.

The board is intended to allow Openreach to have an "increased operational and management independence" and will oversee the company's performance, according to a Feb. 1 news release.

In November 2016, British regulator Ofcom required BT to legally separate from Openreach and for the infrastructure company to have its own board mostly comprising nonexecutive directors and a chairman, who will not be connected to BT. In the same month, BT announced Mike McTighe will become chairman of Openreach, effective January.

Openreach will also establish committees such as the board audit, risk and compliance committee, which will regularly hear representations from customers and annually review Openreach compliance, the release said.