First it reached the offices, then everybody’s homes, the coffee shops, a number of parks and the airport lounges followed. It’s now time for the wireless Internet to move into airplanes.

I’m not sure who was the first one who planned it, but the first one who announced it will implement the new feature at a large scale was Delta Air Lines. The company said Tuesday in a statement that its future offer will include broadband wireless Internet access on its entire domestic mainline fleet. Passengers with Wi-Fi-enabled devices like laptops, smartphones and personal digital assistants will be able to surf the Internet from their plane seats as early as October.

Continental Airlines, Southwest and Virgin America, also announced their plans to offer similar service across a majority of their mainline fleet. Delta Air Lines’ new offer comes amid the company’s plans to outmaneuver rival JetBlue, who offers satellite TV in its planes, and American Airlines, which is planning to launch Internet service later this year.

According to Delta, the new service will be available for a $9.95 flat fee on flights of three hours or less, and $12.95 on longer flights. The extra fees for wireless Internet will surely gather millions and millions of dollars in the company’s bank accounts.

The company’s statement did not mention how many money Delta expects to make with the new service. It also gave no detail regarding the deal reached with Aircell, an airborne communications provider that will install the network on Delta’s domestic fleet of more than 330 aircraft.

AMR’s American Airlines will offer the same service also through Aircell later this year on 15 of its 767-200 aircraft, according to a company spokesperson. JetBlue Airways offers the Wi-Fi service, but on only one aircraft that generally flies transcontinental routes, The New York Times reported quoting a company spokeswoman.

According to Mike Miller, an Orlando-based aviation consultant, a complete n-seat entertainment system would be very expensive to implement and would also require a lot of maintenance. On the other hand, the Wi-Fi service is cheaper and would help passengers cope with delays on flights.