An apparatus and method initiates a conference call in a telecommunication system. A call set up message is sent by a user's equipment, a message header indicating the equipment's own public identity as the call recipient and a tag indicating that the user equipment only accepts a conference call server as the recipient of the message. A network element configured to process messages from the user equipment receives the message and redirects the message to a conference call server on the basis of the header fields of the message. The conference call server detects that the message is a conference call set up message on the basis of the header fields of the message, and establishes a conference call.