Yes, those databases are sadly very common and are fundamental to how location services work on the phone. In most cases there's no good GPS signal in urban areas, so cell tower and wifi locations are the most reliable way of determining the location. These databases are of course very valuable and require constant updates.

Pretty much every manufacturer has them - Apple was collecting/uploads this data (cell towers, wifis and your location) in iOS 4 as well: https://www.computerworld.com/article/2507791/iphone-secretl...