Verizon, whose plans typically cost more than its peers, added 8,000 net monthly bill-paying wireless phone subscribers in the second quarter, compared with estimates for a loss of 11,000, according to analysts polled by Factset. Its results come as the sector is rattled by a Wall Street Journal report on July 9 that the company and AT&T were among several telecom operators that abandoned a sprawling network of lead-clad cables, which might have contaminated water and soil. Free cash flow, a metric closely watched by investors to help determine dividend payouts, came in at $8 billion, above analysts' average expectation of $5.05 billion, according to Visible Alpha.