How ‘Braveheart’ explains the future of tech policy

A Q&A with former-Rep Chip Pickering (R-MS).

As an aide to then-Sen Trent Lott (R-MS), Pickering helped draft the first major update to the nation's telecom laws since they were written in 1934. He later became a congressman himself and now leads COMPTEL, a growing association of tech and telecom companies like Google Fiber and Netflix that hope to challenge the dominance of Verizon and AT&T. “If you look at ‘Braveheart,’ they were going to take on the king, and the only way they could take on the king was to unite the tribes. What COMPTEL's doing is, we're uniting the tribes so we can take on the king.”