MAS claims on their website that they provide satellite telephone to their business class passengers in the 772.
MH Experience - Fleet - Boeing 777-200 | Malaysia Airlines
Maybe it's just that - a claim, maybe not.
The rumor has it that Inmarsat plc is in possession of some position data of MH370. What I know about inmarsat is that they use various generations of geostationary satellites. The newer ones - I3/I4 - feature spot beams, so it should be possible to infer a vague line of position every time the ground/airborne equipment changes from one spot beam into another. With a series of that lines of position the course could be vaguely reconstructed.
Maybe something like that was communicated to ABC/WSJ Journalists and it ended up as "GPS postions were contained in the pings" ?
Anybody has more specific info on the Inmarsat Equipment used or used not on MH370 ?
Exclusive: Radar data suggests missing Malaysia plane deliberately flown way off course - sources | Reuters
This alleged report of waypoints deduced from primary radar can also be interpreted a little simpler: Just go west until you intersect the normal route into the indian ocean, then take that route. If VAMPI actually was really reached - or the right turn was made before - remains unclear. Maybe MAF didn't care too much because most of the track was in Thai airspace ?