The OBis do talk to the mothership. You can turn off Auto provisioning but they will still chatter away... think OBiTalk network. God help us when they become self aware.
Pinging
prov.obitalk.com [204.236.134.243] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 204.236.134.243: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=46
Reply from 204.236.134.243: bytes=32 time=65ms TTL=46
Reply from 204.236.134.243: bytes=32 time=79ms TTL=46
Reply from 204.236.134.243: bytes=32 time=65ms TTL=46
The last 2 digits of the above IP address are reversed from your post. But anywho...