Marcel Popa completed his studies at the Politechnical University of Timisoara, Romania, in 1989 and subsequently worked as a professor in the same university. His telecom career began in 1993 in cable networks in Timisoara, and from 1997 he was heavily involved in data over cable projects at the Romanian telecom operator RCS&RDS.
From 2000, he was involved in fibre optic projects, backbone and access networks. In 2006, he became the general manager of Digi Sat doo, a new Serbian branch of RCS&RDS.