Malaysia is focused on broadband internet affordability in upgrading its internet infrastructure that by 2020, at least 95 per cent of the country's internet development will be connected," said Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak.

Responding to DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang who has been firing salvo at him about the country's internet affairs, Salleh said affordability of the internet, is among the key areas that the government is working to improve.

“Note the part where I said (yesterday), ‘Malaysia’s focus on speed, coverage and affordability.

“That means cost (affordability) is one point that I’m looking at, which is also the point that Lim Kit Siang is talking about. So we are on the same page here,” Salleh wrote on his blog today.

Salleh also said with an Internet penetration of 67 per cent among the rakyat, Malaysia is relatively leading the pack in the region.

“The average Internet penetration for the whole of Asia is only 38.8 per cent and 73.5 per cent for the whole of Europe. North America is ahead of the rest of the world at 87.9 per cent.

“As I said yesterday, we are planning to give 95 per cent of Malaysians Internet service by 2020, which is only five years from now, and Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will be allocating about RM9 billion by 2020 to achieve this,” said Salleh.

In an earlier statement by Kit Siang, he highlighted the high cost for faster Internet speed in Malaysia makes it inaccessible for many. (Malaysia is ranked 70th globally on average internet speed as reported by Akamai Technologies Inc.)

Salleh said the concerns highlighted have been taken into consideration.

"What must also be taken into consideration, which Akamai did not, is the entry-level package for fixed broadband offered by Telekom Malaysia starts at 386 kbps.

"Therefore, due to the high number of subscribers for these entry-level packages (71 per cent), this had the effect of pulling down the average speeds measured by Akamai," he concluded.