diff --git a/google/cloud/spanner_v1/gapic/transports/spanner_grpc_transport.py b/google/cloud/spanner_v1/gapic/transports/spanner_grpc_transport.py
index 3d43f5088e..1a3d0d1407 100644
--- a/google/cloud/spanner_v1/gapic/transports/spanner_grpc_transport.py
+++ b/google/cloud/spanner_v1/gapic/transports/spanner_grpc_transport.py
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 from google.cloud.spanner_v1.proto import spanner_pb2_grpc
 
 
+_GRPC_KEEPALIVE_MS = 2 * 60 * 1000
 _SPANNER_GRPC_CONFIG = "spanner.grpc.config"
 
 
@@ -73,6 +74,7 @@ def __init__(
                 options={
                     "grpc.max_send_message_length": -1,
                     "grpc.max_receive_message_length": -1,
+                    "grpc.keepalive_time_ms": _GRPC_KEEPALIVE_MS,
                 }.items(),
             )