we had BT reconnected today, they switched it on without attending site, however on getting home this evening the line was dead. After much investigation it looks as if the cabling outside is damaged, the wire is really really old, and appears to be two wires in a single cable, but on one of the bends, one of the wires is snapped.
Would it be safe to clean the ends of the wire and tape them back together, or is the some kind of electric current that likely to shock me?

It's best to report it to BT, the work won't cost you anything (shouldn't as it's their network side and old cable).

151 or 0800 800 151

well I was going to call them, but I was thinking I could patch it up and get it working until they get here as its likely to be the middle of next week before they come out.

You are not legally permitted to touch BT's cable. So your only option is to call them out to fix it.

If you DO attempt to patch it, even temporarily and call BT out to do a permanent fix they will very likely charge you. Whereas if you leave it alone they most probably will not charge you a penny.

There is 50V DC on the line which will quite likely give you a tingle. If someone were to ring in while you were doing it you most certainly WILL feel that (been there )

But in any case you can't touch the cable anyway so you won't be getting a shock off it will you

Me too - it's amazing the difference between 50 volts and 75 volts, isn't it?

Maybe it's also to do with the 50V being DC and the 75V being AC?

But yes it is a nice sensation when some inconsiderate so and so decides to test the phone line when you are wiring the thing into the socket!

Mind you with these new fangled IDC connectors it's not so often you need to bare any copper to do the wiring. Makes it a tad safer than the old screw or "christmas tree" terminal blocks.

you can't beat the classic tag rash, hot summers working on the frame with short sleeves, especially on the dacs blocks.

You tend to feel AC more, because it is rapidly changing backwards and forwards. Standard household electricity has a sine wave, at 230v AC RMS.

Anyway, if I were you, I would contact BT about it.

You must contact your service provider so that an Openreach engineer can be sent to repair/replace the drop-wire feeding your house from the DP.