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@rhowe
Yes, GPS is a signal broadcast from satellites open to all (although there is an encrypted channel which is US military only, giving enhanced accuracy). Your phone has a dedicated antenna for this as well as the mobile network one, the WiFi one and the Bluetooth one. Your data bill is for data transfer over the mobile network only. You can listen to the GPS satellites' broadcasts for as long as your battery lets you and you won't be charged a penny.
If your data connection is enabled and you aren't connected to a WiFi network then your phone will talk to your provider's aGPS servers (see wiki link above) to let you ascertain a fix more quickly. Also see the stuff about Google's WiFi hotspot location database above.