diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 99a3d4e3..6c4430ce 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 """
 
 import os
+import sys
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages  # noqa: H301
 
 NAME = "bandwidth-sdk"
@@ -20,6 +21,13 @@
 # prerequisite: setuptools
 # http://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools
 
+if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
+    with open('README.md', 'r') as fh:
+        long_description = fh.read()
+else:
+    with open('README.md', 'r', encoding='utf-8') as fh:
+        long_description = fh.read()
+
 REQUIRES = [
   "urllib3 >= 1.25.3",
   "python-dateutil",