To let the controller know when something async happens, use Angular promises.
To provoke the $apply, you don’t need the scope, you can call $rootScope.$apply, as there is no difference calling it in a specific scope or in the root.
Regarding the variable reading, it would be better if you received parameters. But you could also read it from a scope as an object parameter, but I would go with parameter, that would make your service interface much more clearer.