That's not necessarily what AGPS means though. The "assisted" part goes over and above, giving you faster acquisition/startup times, it doesn't necessarily mean you need an active data connection present to use the GPS features. Even though WP does claim that some devices always need a data connection, I don't believe that's the case with the iPhone, so I don't expect it would be the case with the iPad.

What you won't be able to use without a data connection is Google Maps (the maps application built into the iPhone and iPad). But you should be fine using one of the third party navigation/map applications.

It just so happens that the GPS chipset is integrated into whatever they add to the devices when they add the cellular bits. Either another small SoC or daughter card or whatever.

BTW, data will also work everywhere in the world a long as you plug a micro sim in. I'm not sure why they didn't just use a regular sized sim though.