Sprint Nextel Corp. said Monday that its local telephone division was partnering with the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, Nev., to test a wireless broadband network, the first such test with a traditional local phone company.

The Wi-Fi system covers two square miles of Henderson and will be used primarily by emergency personnel and other city employees needing information in the field, said Kenny Wyatt, Sprint’s vice president of marketing and product development for business.

But residents and businesses within the area also will be able to use the overlapping network of so-called “hot spots” for free to get online at speeds comparable to DSL, he said.

The trial will go through the end of May, at which point Sprint, which is paying an undisclosed amount to build and run the network, will evaluate how the system was used and determine whether it should be sold as a subscription service or through other methods.