Compression and frequency lowering are two entirely different things, Bill, serving 2 different purposes.
There’s a current thread that touches on compression that you may be interested in reading up on: Self programming? Not sure how much longer I can deal with the "muffleness" of the compression - #15 by codergeek2015. In there, @Um_bongo and @Neville contributed a lot of professional insights into how the various HA mfgs deal with compression, in different ways. I wouldn’t be surprised if Whisper comes up with their own compression scheme which they think is superior to others. But all the HA mfgs probably think that they have a better compression scheme than their competitors.
Frequency shifting is a part of frequency lowering, but frequency shifting can be used somewhere else in a much smaller effect as well, like in feedback management where a strategy is to shift the frequency of the sounds by 10 Hz only to help reduce feedback. So that’s why I keep using “Frequency Lowering” to refer to the question asked (whether Whisper has any), instead of use the term frequency shifting. Like compression, different HA mfgs come up with their own frequency lowering technologies as well, and they probably also think that theirs is superior to others as well.
But to answer your question, WDRC (wide dynamic range compression) is not about frequency shifting. It’s about adjusting the amplification of signals over different frequencies to match the hearing loss of the individual to provide the most comfortable hearing experience without excessive loudness that can also result in feedbacks. So that doesn’t mean that Whisper is doing frequency lowering if they’re doing compression.
One strategy on frequency lowering is frequency compression, as employed by Phonak and some others. But I’m fairly sure that Whisper is probably talking about WDRC and not frequency lowering when they mention compression in their paper.