Perhaps you misunderstood my point: For the cell phone to function - especially for you to receive calls - the network has to know where your phone is. Even if you have disabled tracking, it still has to know.
As you noted, whenever you activate your phone, the first thing it does is say, “Hello, I am here!” It keeps saying that, even when not being used, as long as it is active. In some cases, even turning the phone off does not de-activate the phone. That’s a fundamental part of the way that cell phones work.
Check this out, I found THIS: https://slate.com/technology/2013/07/nsa-can-reportedly-track-cellphones-even-when-they-re-turned-off.html#:~:text=In%20most%20cases%2C%20when%20you,when%20it%20was%20powered%20down.