With the increasing number of telecom operators in the country, the Government felt the need for presence of Telegraph Authority like Director General Telecom in the field at all the License Service Areas and Large Telecom Districts of the country, in order to ensure that service providers adhere to the License conditions and for taking care of telecom network security issues. With the growth of private telecom and internet services, an increase in illegal / clandestine telecom operations was also observed. To address these issues, the Government created initially four Vigilance Telecom Monitoring cells in November 2004 at Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai.

Nine more Vigilance Telecom Monitoring Cells were created during the year 2006 for the circles of Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh (East) and fifteen Vigilance Telecom Monitoring Cells were subsequently added in January 2007 for Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (West), Andaman & Nicobar, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, Union Territory of Ladakh, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, North East-I, North East-II, Odisha and Uttarakhand. Six more Vigilance Telecom Monitoring Cells were added in March 2007 for Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Pune, Jaipur and Lucknow, taking the total number of Vigilance Telecom Monitoring Cells to 34.

Since formation of Vigilance & Telecom Monitoring Cells in the Department of Telecommunications, the role and functions of Vigilance Telecom Monitoring Cells have increased manifold. With a view to reflect the entire gamut of functions assigned to the Vigilance Telecom Monitoring Cells, the name of Vigilance Telecom Monitoring Cells was changed to Telecom Enforcement, Resource and Monitoring Cells in August 2008.