I was refering to the opposite: It is possible to make phone calls without any data connection, i.e. without LTE, without 2/3/4/5G.

People seem to have lost that knowledge; I'll say it just one more time:
There's technology for mobile calls and SMS, usually called GSM, and then there's all the rest, call it mobile broadband, internet, data, whatever.
Every smart phone ever built (*) has had (and still has) at least those two technologies side by side.

(*) assuming part of the definition of "smartphone" is "internet capable". And if someone brings up WAP now I'm going to scream...