the local sending side has some way to control the state their particle wavefunctions collapse into (otherwise they’re just sending random noise).

Do they? My impression is that, like the article says, "their states are random but always correlated". I think they are in fact measuring random values on each side, it's just that they correlate following Schroedinger's equation.

I believe the intention is not "sending" specific data faster than light.. but rather to "create Quantum Keys for secure information transmission". The information between the quantum particles is correlated in both sides, so they can try to use this random data to generate keys on each side in a way that they can be used to create a secure encryption for communication (a "Quantum Network that will be used for secure communication and data exchange between Quantum Computers"), but the encrypted data wouldn't travel faster than light.