diff --git a/Lib/SimpleXMLRPCServer.py b/Lib/SimpleXMLRPCServer.py
index b304e45c112..6af2f2f7e0b 100644
--- a/Lib/SimpleXMLRPCServer.py
+++ b/Lib/SimpleXMLRPCServer.py
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ class SimpleXMLRPCDispatcher:
     reason to instantiate this class directly.
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, allow_none, encoding):
+    def __init__(self, allow_none=False, encoding=None):
         self.funcs = {}
         self.instance = None
         self.allow_none = allow_none
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 0addc8b829c..17ff1aa10f0 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -468,6 +468,9 @@ Library
 - Issue #1149804: macostools.mkdirs now even works when another process
   creates one of the needed subdirectories.
 
+- Issue #2703: SimpleXMLRPCDispatcher.__init__: Provide default values for
+  new arguments introduced in 2.5.
+
 Tools/Demos
 -----------