I am sure they were able to do it without it, but others can interfer. Triangulation was already a thing in the courts.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/06/victory-supreme-court-... It's in Carpenter vs US, for deducting he robbed a store from just the cell phone signals.
>The average for Boston is 21 meters; New York 27 meters; Austin, TX, 28 meters; Washington 29 meters, and Chicago 38 meters.
>A number of factors can impact location data accuracy, including its source, which can include GPS signals, Wi-Fi and cell tower triangulation.
Seems like the figures they're giving is with wifi/gps signals, not just cell tower alone.