Latency is a critical factor in the quality of VoIP communications. High latency can cause delays in communication, leading to poor call quality. Bandwidth would not necessarily affect call quality unless the network is congested. Utilization might indicate how much of the available bandwidth is being used but does not directly relate to the delay in the communication. Error rates could contribute to poor quality if packets are being dropped or damaged, but latency specifically refers to the time delay and is therefore the most pertinent to the intermittent quality issues described.