A bid to revolutionise France’s mobile phone market is being held back by “fierce lobbying” by the three incumbent operators, according to Xavier Niel, the entrepreneur who shook up the French internet industry.

Mr Niel, who controls Free, France’s second-largest broadband provider by subscribers, said its rivals France Telecom, SFR and Bouygues Telecom were doing all they could to prevent the internet group from securing the country’s fourth mobile phone licence.