A report from BT Cellnet has had me laughing.

Apparently, gossiping on a mobile phone is the human equivalent of social grooming among apes and chimpanzees.

As we chat about nothing much, we are reinforcing an eons-old behavioural pattern, binding our communities together. I thought I was just having a natter.

The research was carried out by the Social Issues Research Centre (SIRC), which insists the ability to gossip among humans is "essential for our social, psychological and physical well-being" and the mobile phone has allowed us to return to the communication patterns of earlier times when we lived in small, close-knit communities.

The report is the first scientific study of mobile gossip and includes results from a series of focus groups, a 1,000-strong representative survey of mobile phone users and information from SIRC's monitoring of social trends and patterns.

It found traditional arenas for regular brief and breezy gossip, such as post offices, banks, village greens and over the garden fence, have disappeared from modern lifestyles.

Mobile telecommunications have helped restore the sense of connection and community in a fragmented and isolating world.

As primates bond through social grooming, so mobile phones allow users to keep in touch with a network of friends and family (usually 150-strong), a process dubbed by experts as "vocal grooming."

Author Kate Fox, of SIRC, said: "Gossip is not a trivial pastime. Mobiles have increased and enhanced this vital therapeutic activity by allowing us to gossip any time, any place and any where."

More than three-quarters of respondents said they gossiped on their mobiles at least once a week, with about a third gossiping every day. Less than a fifth used their mobile phones mainly for work purposes.

The report describes mobiles as a social lifeline, allowing users to keep in touch with friends and family they rarely see.

In moments of stress, in traffic jams, train journeys, or supermarket queues, users can instantly relieve their frustration by talking to or texting a friend from their mobile.

Messaging has also become a daily activity for maintaining contact with their network.

A friendly greeting or a scrap of news exchanged in a text message is the 21st Century equivalent of saying "Hello" over the garden fence. A personal connection is made and people are reminded they are not alone. The report says: "Mobile gossip provides an antidote to the pressures and alienation of modern life."

Such claims that gossip is good for us could be great news for those who are never off their mobile phone - and a splendid marketing slogan for BT Cellnet.