Paywalled, so I can’t read it. But going off the intro - aren’t phones secure enough to not connect to a random unauthorized cell tower? Or to leak unencrypted data to it?
https://www.eff.org/wp/gotta-catch-em-all-understanding-how-...
When I worked in this area 20 years ago that was called a fake base station, and there were even commercial products that anyone could buy. Then (in France) it was forbidden by law.
There are rumors that police still use them.
The article says that it does not enable connections, but instead that the base station requires IMSI from the phones.