Your reasoning about interest rates affecting utility stocks inversely is correct, but it goes a bit deeper.
Quite often utilities finance large capital projects via debt issues rather than equity issues (that is bonds vs. stocks). Such financing is subject to the prevailing interest rates, discounted by the credit-worthiness of the issuer.
However, debt financing is not uncommon to other sectors, and, in particular, telecommunications providers require massive infrastructure which involve massive capital expenditures, often financed, at least in part, by debt, not equity. Bridges, highways, large factories, mines etc. are not usually financed by cash (unless you have a cash cow like Intel).
So when you see something big and expensive being built and think "Who paid that?", think of Danny De Vito's motto - OPM: Other People's Money.
So when interest rates go up, capital projects can be in danger of "pushing out" or postponement until the interest rate environment becomes may favourable to issue debt.
So getting back to ASND, it and its brethren will be affected inversely interest rates along with its customers. It is a rare company that has products so hot that customers need it at any cost.
Of course, that is a very simplistic explanation. The "REAL WORLD" adds in many complications. For instance, I was involved in a relatively small project (a couple million vs. hundreds of millions), that was put on hold indefinitely as a cost containment measure so the company could focus its resources on other larger, higher profile, "bread and butter" projects. In essence, information system expenditures were cut in favour of paying people to dig big holes in the middle of nowhere (i.e. mines). Imagine just a few such occurences in a single corporation multiplied by many corporations, and it is easy to see how rising interest rates can adversely affect equipment providers. (And we're not even talking about how interest rates may affect consumer spending patterns!)
To quote Stan Lee: "'Nuff said!"
Hope that helps.
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