Android tablets DO NOT need to be cellular capable for GPS to work.
i wish the Apple thing with this inaccurate info would just die. It keeps getting repeated and repeated and repeated. Misinformation is not helpful to people learning, and then the misinformation gets.....repeated....again.
The chipset they (Apple at least) were using integrated satellite GPS into the cell radio chip. So the WiFi/WLAN-only models only could do location based on the hotspot databases. It's absolutely true smart phones and all (perhaps "most", I dunno if *all*) cellular-capable tablets have been able to do real, satellite GPS for a long time.
However, AFAIK Apple still only lists WiFi+Cellular models as doing Assisted GPS and GLONASS. Assisted GPS in Apple speak is satellite GPS, not to be confused with actual assisted GPS, e.g. A-GPS, used for speeding up time to first fix.
Of course what Apple does doesn't mean it's the same for all tablets. It's certainly plausible others do integrate satellite GPS without tying that to cellular. The coexistence features for WLAN chips don't require the companion to be a cellular. It could be WiMax, UWB, GPS-only in theory. There's scores of components they could be using, too. So what Broadcom did isn't what Cypress will continue to do or Qualcomm or TI or Marvell either.
If the WLAN dependency is misinformation it would indeed be good to put to bed once and for all. But it's still true I believe for Apple and therefore the confusion remains. To know *for sure* you very likely need an LTE device or expect to use a standalone Bluetooth GPS receiver.
