diff --git a/gluon/contrib/simplejsonrpc.py b/gluon/contrib/simplejsonrpc.py
index 0ffe8add..2769b09d 100644
--- a/gluon/contrib/simplejsonrpc.py
+++ b/gluon/contrib/simplejsonrpc.py
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ else:
     from io import StringIO
 import random
 import json
-
+from gluon._compat import basestring
 
 class JSONRPCError(RuntimeError):
     "Error object for remote procedure call fail"