The Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program (its acronym is ITP) is a part of the University of Colorado at Boulder and offers graduate degrees in telecommunications: a Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Science in Telecommunications and a Master of Engineering in Telecommunications. It is the oldest telecommunications program in the United States and was founded in 1971 by Frank S. Barnes (Engineering) and George Codding (deceased, International Relations). Since its inception, ITP has taken an interdisciplinary approach to telecommunications, involving the study of engineering, law, politics, economics and business. Over the course of the past 35 years, ITP has graduated approximately 2,000 alumni who are in various positions around the world as CEOs, government officials, and management.
In 2004, ITP founder Frank S. Barnes was awarded the prestigious Gordon Prize for having founded ITP due to its innovative character and the influence that it has had within academia and industry. As the first program of its kind in the United States, it broke ground for the many academic programs that followed. When Peterson's first started listing telecommunications programs in 1996, the director of ITP was asked to write the introduction on the topic for Peterson's publisher. There is no question that many other prominent university programs have been directly influenced by ITP. For further information, there is now a consortium of universities that teach the telecommunications discipline, known as ITERA.
Students may participate in the program through either full-time academic study on campus or by participating in a distance-education platform.