Once a familiar sight on streets all over the United Kingdom and its territories, the crown-topped red British telephone boxes are being reborn — as comically improbable coffee shops, offices and stores. While some local boxes already have been converted — a tiny library, a gallery for local artists and even a medical station with a cardiac defibrillator — a number of entrepreneurs now are buying or renting the defunct telephone boxes and turning them into eye-catching (albeit pint-sized) businesses. Smartphone addicts can squeeze in too: for a $31 monthly fee, Pod Works members get free Internet access, a 25-inch screen, scanning and printing via Wi-Fi and free national calls in their “pods” across the United Kingdom.