An approach is provided for supporting telephony services over a data communication network. A network server receives multiple early media streams associated with a communication session between an originating network element and one or more terminating network elements. The network server selectively suppresses the early media streams, such that the originating network element receives a single signaling message indicating status information of the communication session (or call). The present invention has particular applicability to SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) IP (Internet Protocol) telephony services.