A real-time media session is established between user equipment and a media communication server via a serving access network. According to the Invention, dummy data (e.g. a dummy message) is sent in order to maintain a dedicated channel during the inactive periods of a real-time media session or to trigger an early setup of a dedicated channel in the access network. In this manner, user equipment logged on to a real-time media (e.g. PoC) session are prevented from going to a radio resource idle state, thus avoiding potential long extra delays during real-time media (e.g. PoC) service usage. The invention further allows the sending and receiving user equipment to set up dedicated channels (DCH) already during the start-to-talk procedure of the transmitting user equipment, which in turn potentially reduces end-to-end delays during the conversation.