This is not true:

It is true that your phone listens to control channel on currently selected base station. It is also true that your phone scans other channels relatively frequently to see if a better signal is available, but unless the phone decides (based on data received from the network) to switch to another base station, it will only talk to the network about once or twice per hour.

The network can ping the phone if it wants (and does so whenever there is something to be signalled, or if law enforcement decides to).