Yes, much that we think of as Google Maps relies on API calls made to the backend. Plus this assumes that you downloaded the offline maps ahead of time, which in my anecdotal experience is not something that most people really consider. GMaps does (or did at one time at least) have a neat feature of auto-downloading your home area map but, the one time I needed it, it didn't work.
> which in my anecdotal experience is not something that most people really consider
Thankfully I’m in Canada where it’s not impossible to end up in the sticks with no service.
Chewing through your handful of gigabytes/month of data wasn’t hard. Only in the past year or so have double digit gigabyte/month data plans become cost-effective.
And our roaming prices are extortionate, so for jaunts over the border (or internationally), I’ll sometimes go “naked”.
