 Ofcom further announced that it was preparing a formal notification to the European Commission to start the separation process.In March 2017, BT Group plc agreed to make Openreach a separate company, Openreach Limited, with its own staff and management, but with the network assets continuing to be owned by BT plc for land-contract reasons, and with Openreach Limited being wholly owned by BT Group plc, BT plc's parent holding company.In July 2017, Openreach began removing the BT element from its logo, and in September 2017 Openreach removed BT branding from its website.