A question about Apple Pay requirements

[DaveWT]

While travelling in the Yukon and Alaska recently a question occurred to me. My wife has an iPhone 6s and has used Apple Pay in our own area. On the (very short) trip, she did not bother getting a local SIM or other scheme to allow use of the cell phone service, and depended on wifi only when it was available. She did manage to use Apple Pay in Whitehorse in a location where she had a wifi connection but I wondered if even that is necessary to make the transaction happen.

Is it enough to have the iPhone communicate with the store's NFC terminal and then what ever info has to flow goes by way of their network for that terminal or does the iPhone need some sort of wifi or cell connection as well at that moment?

 

[Monvic]

My understanding is that wifi is not necessary. It only needs a merchant with a terminal enabled to use Near Field Communication.
Monica